Roughly an hour after polls closed on Tuesday night, Republican Clay Fuller was declared the newest member of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
Only about half the votes had been counted by that time, but the returns made it clear that he had won the runoff to finish the rest of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term.
But it was Democrats, not Republicans, beating their chests at the results. Their candidate, Shawn Harris, lost to Fuller by 12 percentage points. But it was a big improvement over Harris’ 2024 effort when he lost to Greene by 28 points.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats considering a presidential run in 2028, traveled to Georgia three weeks ago to campaign with Harris. Even as Fuller pulled away toward victory, Buttigieg said the results were indicative of a disciplined candidate in Harris and a winning message.
“While coming up short of victory in Georgia’s highly conservative 14th District, his campaign generated more votes and more excitement than anyone would have thought possible there until recently,” he wrote on X. “Across the country, in very different corners of America, I see forms of this same energy mounting. If we keep working hard, unbelievable results will be possible in November.”
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Democrats think the fact that Harris picked up thousands of votes, improving his vote share in every county in the district, bodes well for the reelection of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and the party’s hopes of winning the governor’s race and other statewide offices up for grabs in the midterms.
However, Emory University political science professor Bernard Fraga said earlier this week that runoffs have such a different electorate that Tuesday’s outcome should not be seen as a predictor of contests to come.
“We should be cautious about using runoff election results to predict November outcomes, as these elections often draw different voter demographics and are not a linear indicator of future general election performance,” he said.
But his colleague, fellow Emory professor Andra Gillespie, said she sees why Democrats are feeling good about the runoff results.
“That Harris lost by only 12 points in a district that Trump won by 37 points and Greene won by nearly 29 points is remarkable,” she said. “It suggests that Democrats are motivated and mobilizing. It probably won’t help Harris win in November, but this is the kind of momentum that can help Democratic statewide candidates overcome traditional disadvantages in November.”
Before the race was called, there were critics of Fuller who began sounding an alarm about what it might mean if his performance failed to meet expectations.
Around the time that polls closed, a mysterious text message began pinging cellphones.
“Should Clay Fuller underperform tonight would you be willing to support a REAL true conservative like Colton Moore in the REAL Republican primary on May 19th?” the text read.
Moore, a former state senator, finished third in the March 10 special election that preceded Tuesday’s runoff. He is expected to be Fuller’s top Republican competitor in next month’s party primary to determine who will compete with Harris in the November for a full two-year term.
Moore did not respond to an email and text message asking him if the final results prove or disprove that Fuller underperformed.
Allies of Fuller had hoped his margin of victory would be 15 percentage points or more. Yet, Republicans say any talk that he “underperformed” or that Harris did better than expected is mostly bluster.
They point to the unusual circumstances of a special election runoff with low turnout, limited early voting and during a week that coincided with spring break for school children.
Efforts to read into the results, such as one analysis that found Harris carried five heavily Latino precincts that Kamala Harris lost in 2024, are just a slanted effort to put a positive spin on what at the end of the day was a win for the GOP candidate, Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said.
“The attempt to sort of extrapolate from or suggest that this is some significant test of voter sentiment is misplaced because it’s such a small population compared to who will turn out even in the midterm election in November of 2026,” he said. “I think I could get a random number generator out and say, ‘This is what I think is going to happen in November,’ and it would have as much predictive value.”
President Donald Trump endorsed Fuller out of a field of more than 20 Republicans who qualified in the race, handpicking the person who would succeed his ally-turned-foe Greene.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that Fuller “won convincingly, and right from the beginning, despite many people running for that ‘TRUMP’ +37 seat, and despite the stench left by Greene. Congratulations to Clay Fuller, a very large improvement over his deranged predecessor!”
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
