How the special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene is testing the power of Trump’s endorsement
By Jeff Zeleny, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s sway over the Republican Party faces a fresh test Tuesday with a free-for-all special election in northwest Georgia to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump ally-turned-critic who vacated her seat in Congress in January.
Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor and Air Force veteran, won Trump’s endorsement from a field of nearly 20 candidates. But the presidential seal of approval, which Trump delivered last month on a visit to the district, has done little to streamline the remarkably crowded contest.
The president’s decision to weigh in on the Georgia race, which has several self-described MAGA candidates on the ballot, was intended to help avoid a runoff and fill the seat quickly to give Speaker Mike Johnson more cushion in his razor-thin House Republican majority.
While Fuller has repeatedly said he would be “a warrior for President Trump on Capitol Hill,” other GOP rivals have also vowed to fully support the president’s agenda.
Colton Moore, a former state senator and conservative firebrand, has been running ads suggesting he is the true “America First” candidate and Trump loyalist in the race. He praised the president but dismissed the importance of a Trump endorsement, saying: “The swamp money has come in against us.”
“There’s a lot of folks who talk a big conservative game, but when it comes down to doing conservative stuff, they’re nowhere to be found,” Moore said Monday in an interview on a conservative talk radio show on WLAQ, a station in the district based in Rome, Georgia. “We need to find a fighter, a legislator, who’s willing to bring that fight with true vigor.”
Tom Gray, a pastor who is also running to replace Greene, expressed his support for Trump but added: “We’re independent thinkers and decision-makers.”
Jim Tully, a former Greene staffer and longtime Republican activist who is on the ballot, also touted his admiration for Trump. Yet he said voters loyal to the president could draw their own conclusions about the race, saying: “We’ve never talked about this being President Trump’s district. This district belongs to the people.”
Could a Democrat win?
The sprawling 14th Congressional District covers 10 counties stretching from the Atlanta suburbs to the Appalachian foothills along the Tennessee state line.
It’s ruby-red Trump country but with enough Democrats and independents to cause heartburn for Republicans in a special election that sends the top two vote-getters — regardless of party — into an April runoff if no candidate wins over 50%.
“If Georgia 14 turns blue, it would be a tragedy for the president’s agenda,” Fuller told CNN. “We as a party need to start having an honest conversation about that.”
Shawn Harris, a retired Marine brigadier general who lost to Greene in 2024, is the Democratic contender who worries Republicans the most. He received nearly 135,000 votes the last time he was on the ballot — a fraction of which would likely vault him into a runoff — though turnout on Tuesday is expected to be lower than in the 2024 contest.
Harris said Republicans tried to get him to change parties, but instead he is trying to recruit moderates or disillusioned Republicans to his campaign — even, he said, if they come secretly.
“Voting is not church,” Harris said in an interview. “You don’t have to confess. You just have to go in there and do what’s best for you, your family and your grandkids.”
Republican officials believe Harris is likely to be one of the top two finishers to advance to an April 7 runoff. Regardless of the outcome of that election, candidates must run again for the seat this fall, starting with the primary on May 19, in a dizzying series of elections.
The feud between Trump and Greene — a former ally — has created a sense of unease and anger among some voters in the district. Greene has remained on the sidelines of the race but has kept alive her relentless criticism of Trump, most recently on his decision to strike Iran.
Testing a Trump endorsement
It’s an open question whether any of those critiques will cause Republican voters to sour on Trump or to take his endorsement less seriously.
Georgia has long stood as a leading barometer for Trump’s performance. He won the state in 2016. He lost it in 2020, which placed it at the center of unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. He won it again in 2024.
Moore was at the center of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. His actions ultimately led to him being kicked out of the Republican state Senate caucus. He was later arrested at the state Capitol in Atlanta after trying to enter the House chamber, where he had been banned by Republican leaders.
If elected, Moore said, he would join the House Freedom Caucus and help “defend against bad legislation.”
Yet that is precisely what concerns Republican leaders in Congress, particularly the speaker, who helped persuade Trump to endorse Fuller over Moore or other candidates. Republican leaders are searching for a reliable vote, a top GOP aide told CNN, “not another rabblerouser.”
For all of the challenges facing Trump as he enters his second year back in power, the ability to maintain his winning coalition will be at the center of the fight for Congress as voters give their verdict on the first half of his second term.
One of the most closely watched US Senate races in the nation, a wide-open contest for governor and competitive state legislative races are already shaping up in Georgia as a referendum on Trump’s agenda and how the state has fared over the past year.
In the abbreviated two-month campaign, Fuller pledged to voters that he would “have President Trump’s back” on Capitol Hill and that he would not become a thorn in his side, a not-so-subtle reference to Greene.
“We have to support President Trump,” Fuller said. “He’s the greatest foreign policy president in our time. I’ll fight for him, and that’s why he endorsed me in this race.”
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