Election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene leads to run-off
The race to replace high-profile conservative Greene, who resigned following a split with Trump, now heads to a high-stakes April 7 contest
The Republican candidate backed by US President Donald Trump will advance to a run-off against a Democrat in the Georgia race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the US House of Representatives, after a special election on Tuesday seen as a test of Trump’s sway over his party.
Trump’s preferred candidate, former district attorney for four northwest Georgia counties Clay Fuller, will face Shawn Harris, a moderate Democrat who has sought to court disillusioned Trump voters, in the April 7 run-off.
Harris won 37.3 per cent of the vote while Fuller topped a crowded Republican field of a dozen candidates with 34.9 per cent, according to Georgia’s secretary of state. With no candidate securing a majority, the top two will face off next month, with Fuller favoured in the staunchly conservative district.
The race has drawn outsized national attention because it offers an early measure of Trump’s grip on his base in a district that has been a stronghold of his Make America Great Again movement and was thrust back into the spotlight by last year’s public split between Trump and Greene.
Fuller easily outpaced other Republicans, signalling Trump’s enduring sway over his Maga base. He beat the next closest one, conservative former state senator Colton Moore, who describes himself as Trump’s top defender, by more than 20 percentage points.