Republican Clay Fuller Wins Georgia Runoff to Replace Marjorie Taylor Greene

Republican Clay Fuller won the special election runoff in Georgia's 14th Congressional District on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, defeating Democrat Shawn Harris to hold the seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Associated Press called the race as results from the rural counties of northwest Georgia rolled in. With 46% of votes counted, Fuller held 54% to Harris's 46%, according to Decision Desk HQ. Fuller, a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia Air National Guard, former district attorney, and one-time White House fellow, consolidated Republican support in a district that had been split across more than a dozen candidates in the March primary. President Donald Trump endorsed Fuller, visited the district in February, and appeared onstage with him, lending the endorsement significant weight in a crowded field.

Greene's resignation set the race in motion Georgia's 14th Congressional District, stretching across 10 counties from suburban Atlanta to the Tennessee border, has long been one of the most reliably Republican seats in the state. Marjorie Taylor Greene won her last race with 65% of the vote, and Trump carried the district with roughly 68% in 2024 — a margin of approximately 37 percentage points over his Democratic opponent. Greene resigned in January 2026 after a public falling out with Trump, who had threatened to back a primary challenge against her. The rift stemmed from Greene's criticism of Trump's foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Her departure triggered the special election that ultimately brought Fuller to Congress. The path to Tuesday's runoff was shaped by the unusual structure of the March primary, which featured 17 candidates — 12 of them Republicans — splitting the conservative vote. Harris, a retired brigadier general who commanded combat troops in Afghanistan and Liberia and served as a military attaché in Israel, led that initial round despite the lopsided partisan composition of the district. Because no candidate cleared a majority, a runoff between the top two finishers became necessary. Fuller, who placed second in March, benefited from Trump's backing over rival Republican Colton Moore, a former state senator whose style drew comparisons to Greene's. The Cook Political Report rates the 14th as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia.

Harris overperformed but the math proved insurmountable Harris ran as a self-described "dirt-road Democrat" with a practical, common-sense pitch, contrasting himself with Greene's confrontational style and arguing that Fuller had surrendered his independence to Trump. Early results suggested Harris improved on his 2024 margin by double digits, continuing a pattern of Democratic overperformance in special elections since the start of Trump's second term. Harris said he would run again in November, when a full two-year congressional term will be on the line. The two candidates clashed sharply over the ongoing U.S.-Israel war against Iran, with Harris calling it "a war of choice" that the president had been advised against, and Fuller defending Trump's actions as having made the country safer.

„This war that we're in right now is a war of choice. The president was advised not to do it. He did it and now we're trying to figure out how are we going to get out of it.” — Shawn Harris via The Guardian

Fuller rejected that framing in the same debate, pointing to Iran's ballistic missile launch toward Diego Garcia as evidence that Tehran could not be negotiated with.

„Our country is safer because of what President Trump has done regarding Iran. Iran is a death cult that could not be negotiated with.” — Clay Fuller via The Guardian

Fuller's arrival shifts House math, but tensions linger within GOP Fuller's victory brings the Republican House majority to 218 seats against Democrats' 214, with one independent and two vacancies remaining, giving Speaker Mike Johnson marginally more room to maneuver in a chamber where a handful of defections can sink legislation. The win was set against a turbulent political backdrop: on the same day voters went to the polls, Greene — now a private citizen — called on the U.S. Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, a dramatic escalation of her break with the president she once championed. Trump, meanwhile, threatened Iran with "civilizational destruction" before agreeing to a two-week ceasefire regarding the Strait of Hormuz, a development that dominated national headlines on election day. Fuller will serve out the remainder of Greene's term but must run again in a May 19 primary, and potentially a June 16 runoff, before a November general election to secure a full two-year term. Democrats, buoyed by Harris's stronger-than-expected showing, signaled they intend to contest the seat again.

218-214 (House seats) — Republican majority after Fuller's swearing-in

Trump 2024: 68, Greene last race: 65, Fuller 2026 runoff (partial): 54

Georgia 14th District — key events: — ; — ; — ; — ; —