March 10 (Reuters) – Georgia voters went to the polls on Tuesday to choose a successor to Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene in a closely watched special election for the U.S. House of Representatives, seen as a test of President Donald Trump’s influence in the state’s most conservative districts.
Trump has endorsed Clay Fuller, the former district attorney for four northwest Georgia counties, but far-right former state Sen. Colton Moore, who calls himself “Trump’s No. 1 defender,” is gearing up for the president’s progressive base.
There are 17 candidates in the race and no one is expected to win a majority in a low-turnout election, leading to an April 7 runoff between the top two candidates. That could include Democrat Sean Harris, who has been trying to shake off disillusioned Trump voters.
The race has attracted widespread attention across the country because it provides an early measure of Trump’s hold on his base in a region that has been a stronghold for his “Make America Great Again” movement. A strong performance by Fuller would highlight Trump’s continued influence, while a weaker performance could signal a loosening of his grip on MAGA.
“This is an interesting case of how much control Trump has over Democrats in this area,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University who lives in the area.
The most likely outcome, Swint said, is for Harris to finish first without a majority, with more than a dozen Republican candidates splitting the party’s vote, giving either Fuller or Moore a second runoff spot. Swint added that Harris would almost certainly lose to the Republican in the runoff given the conservative leanings of the district.
Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, a blue-collar corridor from Atlanta’s outer suburbs to the Tennessee border, catapulted into the national spotlight after Greene won a landslide victory in 2020 and quickly became one of MAGA’s most outspoken national figures.
Now that Greene resigned in January after a bitter disagreement with the president, voters in the district are weighing the next steps for Republicans and how much influence the president should have in choosing her successor.
Last month, Trump visited Rome, a city at the heart of the region, and invited Fuller onstage to promote him as his chosen candidate. However, the race remains fluid and some Trump supporters say they want to decide for themselves.
Maga VS Maga
Moore said he still believes he can win without Trump’s support, citing his continued efforts to promote Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and attack his perceived political opponents — actions he believes are winning over MAGA loyalists.
Moore said in an interview that with so much “Washington, D.C., money” pouring into the district to promote Fuller through TV ads and other means, some “poorly informed voters” might vote for Fuller simply because Trump supports him.
“But activists, the people who are most likely to go out and vote, they know that we are Trump’s number one defenders in Georgia,” Moore said.
The winner of the special election will serve until the end of 2026 but must immediately run for a full two-year term starting in January 2027, starting with a primary in May that could pit many of the same contenders against each other again.
The race will be part of the November general election, which will put all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the 100 seats in the Senate at risk.
Tuesday’s race comes just days after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, a move that some White House aides privately worry could pose political risk to Trump and the Republican Party at a time when voters have made clear they care more about domestic issues, including affordability and health care.
(Reporting by Nathan Lane; Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)
