{"id":515428,"date":"2026-03-10T17:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515428\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T17:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T17:48:15","slug":"how-the-special-election-to-replace-marjorie-taylor-greene-is-testing-the-power-of-trumps-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515428\/","title":{"rendered":"How the special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene is testing the power of Trump\u2019s endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n President Donald Trump\u2019s sway over the Republican Party faces a fresh test Tuesday with a free-for-all special election<\/a> in northwest Georgia to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump ally-turned-critic who vacated her seat<\/a> in Congress in January.\n <\/p>\n

\n Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor and Air Force veteran, won Trump\u2019s endorsement from a field of nearly 20 candidates<\/a>. But the presidential seal of approval, which Trump delivered last month on a visit to the district, has done little to streamline the remarkably crowded contest.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019re the candidate that\u2019s going to have his back on Capitol Hill,\u201d Fuller told reporters Tuesday outside a polling place in Rome, Georgia. \u201cEven though some other candidates in this race may say that they\u2019re 100% pro-Trump, I think it\u2019s important for the voters to ask them what percentage they are now that President Trump has endorsed us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet other GOP rivals on the ballot have also vowed to fully support the president and his agenda.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colton Moore, a former state senator and conservative firebrand, has been running ads suggesting he is the true \u201cAmerica First\u201d candidate and Trump loyalist in the race. He praised the president but dismissed the importance of a Trump endorsement, saying: \u201cThe swamp money has come in against us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks who talk a big conservative game, but when it comes down to doing conservative stuff, they\u2019re nowhere to be found,\u201d Moore said Monday in an interview on a conservative talk radio show on WLAQ, a station in the district based in Rome, Georgia. \u201cWe need to find a fighter, a legislator, who\u2019s willing to bring that fight with true vigor.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Tom Gray, a pastor who is also running to replace Greene, expressed his support for Trump but added: \u201cWe\u2019re independent thinkers and decision-makers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Jim Tully, a former Greene staffer and longtime Republican activist who is on the ballot, also touted his admiration for Trump. Yet he said voters loyal to the president could draw their own conclusions about the race, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve never talked about this being President Trump\u2019s district. This district belongs to the people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The sprawling 14th Congressional District covers 10 counties stretching from the Atlanta suburbs to the Appalachian foothills along the Tennessee state line.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s ruby-red Trump country but with enough Democrats and independents to cause heartburn for Republicans in a special election that sends the top two vote-getters \u2014 regardless of party \u2014 into an April runoff if no candidate wins over 50%.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf Georgia 14 turns blue, it would be a tragedy for the president\u2019s agenda,\u201d Fuller told CNN. \u201cWe as a party need to start having an honest conversation about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Shawn Harris, a retired Marine brigadier general who lost to Greene in 2024, is the Democratic contender who worries Republicans the most. He received nearly 135,000 votes the last time he was on the ballot \u2014 a fraction of which would likely vault him into a runoff \u2014 though turnout on Tuesday is expected to be lower than in the 2024 contest.\n <\/p>\n

\"Shawn<\/p>\n

\n Harris said Republicans tried to get him to change parties, but instead he is trying to recruit moderates or disillusioned Republicans to his campaign \u2014 even, he said, if they come secretly.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cVoting is not church,\u201d Harris said in an interview. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to confess. You just have to go in there and do what\u2019s best for you, your family and your grandkids.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican officials believe Harris is likely to be one of the top two finishers to advance to an April 7 runoff. Regardless of the outcome of that election, candidates must run again for the seat this fall, starting with the primary on May 19, in a dizzying series of elections.\n <\/p>\n

\n The feud between Trump and Greene \u2014 a former ally \u2014 has created a sense of unease and anger among some voters in the district. Greene has remained on the sidelines of the race but has kept alive her relentless criticism of Trump, most recently on his decision to strike Iran.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s an open question whether any of those critiques will cause Republican voters to sour on Trump or to take his endorsement less seriously.\n <\/p>\n

\n Georgia has long stood as a leading barometer for Trump\u2019s performance. He won the state in 2016. He lost it in 2020, which placed it at the center of unfounded claims<\/a> of widespread election fraud. He won it again in 2024.\n <\/p>\n

\"Clay<\/p>\n

\n Moore was at the center of Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. His actions ultimately led to him being kicked out of the Republican state Senate caucus. He was later arrested at the state Capitol in Atlanta after trying to enter the House chamber, where he had been banned by Republican leaders.\n <\/p>\n

\n If elected, Moore said, he would join the House Freedom Caucus and help \u201cdefend against bad legislation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet that is precisely what concerns Republican leaders in Congress, particularly the speaker, who helped persuade Trump to endorse Fuller over Moore or other candidates. Republican leaders are searching for a reliable vote, a top GOP aide told CNN, \u201cnot another rabblerouser.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For all of the challenges facing Trump as he enters his second year back in power, the ability to maintain his winning coalition will be at the center of the fight for Congress as voters give their verdict on the first half of his second term.\n <\/p>\n

\n One of the most closely watched US Senate races<\/a> in the nation, a wide-open contest for governor<\/a> and competitive state legislative races are already shaping up in Georgia as a referendum on Trump\u2019s agenda and how the state has fared over the past year.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the abbreviated two-month campaign, Fuller pledged to voters that he would \u201chave President Trump\u2019s back\u201d on Capitol Hill and that he would not become a thorn in his side, a not-so-subtle reference to Greene.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have to support President Trump,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cHe\u2019s the greatest foreign policy president in our time. I\u2019ll fight for him, and that\u2019s why he endorsed me in this race.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s sway over the Republican Party faces a fresh test Tuesday with a free-for-all special election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-515428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}