Republican candidate Clay Fuller smiles as election results roll in during an election night watch party, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Ringgold, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Republican Clay Fuller won the special election runoff for a U.S. House seat in Northwest Georgia on Tuesday, succeeding controversial former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Fuller beat Democrat Shawn Harris by about 12 points, according to the Associated Press. Greene beat Harris by 29 points in his first run for the seat in 2024, but Fuller called Tuesday’s result a “completely dominating performance” despite the ground made up.
Fuller, a former district attorney and former National Guard member, will fill the seat for the rest of the year. There will be a separate May primary and November general election to fill the seat for the full two-year term, which starts in January 2027. Fuller, Harris and nine other candidates have already announced they are running.
The race came after last month’s special election failed to produce an outright winner. A runoff is triggered in Georgia when no candidate exceeds 50% of the vote, leaving the top two vote-getters standing.
This deeply conservative district stretches from metro Atlanta to the far northwestern corner of the state.
The seat has been empty since Greene resigned in January. She announced the decision last November amid a public falling-out with Trump, who she criticized for his stances on health care, foreign policy and files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump endorsed Fuller in February and reiterated his support on Monday night.
“I am asking all Republicans, America First Patriots, and MAGA Warriors, to please GET OUT AND VOTE for a fantastic Candidate, Clay Fuller, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” the president wrote on social media.
Fuller has backed Trump to the hilt. He thanked Trump in a victory speech at his watch party on Tuesday night.
“I will be — on Capitol Hill — a warrior to have his back each and every day,” Fuller said.
Attendees listen as Republican Clay Fuller speaks during an election night watch party after winning a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Ringgold, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Harris has said he’s a “dirt-road Democrat” with common sense, and practical-minded Republicans should vote for him because he will focus on the district’s interests.
“He has sold his soul to Donald Trump,” Harris said of Fuller on March 23. “The reality of it is he cannot fight for you because he cannot go against the president.”
Harris thanked supporters on social media shortly after the race was called on Tuesday.
“This wasn’t the result we wanted, but the message is clear — people here are ready for leadership that puts them first,” he wrote on Twitter. “The fight continues. On to November!”
Attendee Calvin Milanese displays a hat reading “Jesus is my savior Trump is my President” during an election night watch party for Republican candidate Clay Fuller, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Ringgold, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Democrats have overperformed in elections across the U.S. since President Donald Trump’s second term began. But they haven’t flipped any congressional seats in the handful of those elections that have occurred since then.
However, they have flipped 30 state legislative seats to Republicans’ zero flips since January 2025, according to elections analysis newsletter The Downballot.
That included Democrat Eric Gisler’s narrow win over Republican Mack Guest in Georgia House District 121 in the Athens area in December. Gisler lost to the Republican candidate by over 20 points in the 2024 race.
The 14th Congressional District race wasn’t the only special election runoff at stake in Georgia on Tuesday. Voters in three different areas of the state elected new members of the Georgia legislature.
Senate District 53
Republican retired educator Lanny Thomas easily beat Democratic communications professor Jack Zibluk to replace former state Sen. Colton Moore in this deeply red Northwest Georgia district.
Moore resigned to run for the 14th Congressional District seat.
Thomas beat Zibluk by over 35 points, according to the Associated Press.
Zibluk was the only Democrat in last month’s four-candidate race. Moore beat Democrat Bart Bryant by nearly 60 points in the 2024 election for this seat.
House District 94
One thing we did know heading into the HD 94 race is that the district would stay blue.
Education consultant Venola Mason handily beat attorney and former Snellville Mayor Kelly Kautz in the all-Democrat runoff. This district runs from the Lithonia area in DeKalb up to Mountain Park in Gwinnett and then toward the Brookwood area.
Mason beat Kautz by over 35 points, according to the Associated Press.
The race was to replace former state Rep. Karen Bennett, who resigned in January, then was indicted on federal charges for alleged COVID-19 pandemic unemployment fraud. She pleaded guilty and her sentencing is scheduled for this month.
House District 130
It was almost an all-Democrat special election runoff in HD 130 too, but Republican minister Thomas McAdams snuck in by just seven votes last month.
But Democratic former state Rep. Sheila Clark Nelson beat McAdams by 40 points in this solid blue Augusta-area district on Tuesday. The last time a Republican ran for the seat, in 2022, they lost by 35 points.
The race was to replace former state Rep. Lynn Heffner, who resigned in January.
Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature, and these three special elections do not change the balance of power.
While the regular session of the General Assembly has already ended, the three new lawmakers will serve in any special session that could be called this year. That possibility has been raised after state lawmakers failed to take action on what election officials should do with a July 1 mandate to end the use of QR codes to count ballots.
And, as in the 14th Congressional District race, Tuesday’s winners will only serve the remainder of the year. The race for the full term in each state legislative district starts with next month’s primaries and ends with the general election in November. The winner of those contests would assume office in January 2027.
The Associated Press and the Georgia Recorder contributed to this report.
