A Democrat is leading the race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former congressional seat in Georgia’s deep-red 14th District—a seat Trump won by 37 points in 2024.
Shawn Harris, a cattle farmer and retired brigadier general, finished first in Tuesday’s special election with 37.3 percent of the vote, edging out Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller, who took 34.9 percent with 99 percent of votes counted.
The two will face off in an April 7 runoff after neither cleared the majority threshold needed to avoid a second round.
Harris lost to Greene by 29 points just last year. Now he’s outpacing a field of 12 Republicans in a district that’s supposed to be a GOP gimme. He also outraised his closest Republican challenger by more than four times over, according to CNN.
He’s still a longshot to win the election in the district—but he’s certainly outperforming expectations.
The 17-candidate free-for-all was triggered by Greene’s dramatic exit from Congress in January after an epic falling-out with Trump over the Epstein files. Greene pushed for their release; Trump pushed back. She accused Republicans of having no plan to protect health care for millions of Americans. Trump started calling her “Marjorie Traitor Greene.”
Trump endorsed Fuller—a district attorney and Air National Guard member—in early February, calling him a “MAGA Warrior” on Truth Social. Then, less than two weeks later, the president apparently forgot he’d already picked a candidate, telling reporters on Air Force One that he’d “have to pick someone” while bragging about the power of his endorsement.
Days later, Trump headed to Rome, Georgia, where he pointed Fuller out in the crowd and reiterated he was “endorsing that man very strongly.”
That endorsement apparently wasn’t strong enough to secure a first-round win.
The result is more than embarrassing—it’s politically consequential. Republicans in Congress will have to limp along for another month with their razor-thin one-seat House majority.
Harris, a Marine Corps veteran who saw combat in Afghanistan, has campaigned largely on affordability. He grew up in Blakely, Georgia, is married with five sons and four grandchildren, and later earned a degree in Strategic Studies from the Army War College.
Meanwhile, Greene hasn’t let up on her attacks against the Trump administration, including blasting the president’s decision to launch a war with Iran.
“Trump doesn’t even know what MAGA is anymore and turned it into MIGA,” she wrote in a recent post. “Trump is not America First, he’s donor first.”