Georgia holds special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene : NPR
People applaud President Trump on his way to his speech at the Coosa Steel Corporation February 19 in Rome, Georgia. Trump delivered a speech on the economy and affordability as the state began voting to replace the seat vacated by former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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ATLANTA — Voters in northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes for the district’s special election Tuesday evening.
The election will test the weight of President Trump’s support for either candidate in a hotly contested race. Some voters say the president’s choice is not one they believe would best support the conservative MAGA movement championed by both Trump and Greene.
Greene resigned earlier this year, leaving Georgia’s 14th congressional district without representation in Congress — and reducing the Republican Party’s majority in the House — following a bitter breakup with Trump.
Greene rose to prominence during her five years in office as a strong Trump ally, bombastic attacking critics and promoting the MAGA movement’s “America First” policy. Yet the two had a very public clash after she pushed for the release of documents relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene also sharply criticized Trump’s actions abroad, saying he had strayed from his promises to focus on the domestic market.
With Trump now in the second year of his second term, other high-profile feuds with key elements of his MAGA coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of other issues, including drastic tariffs, immigration policy and more. More recently, divisions have emerged over the war with Iran.
Some, like Greene, argue that while Trump helped create the “America First” worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.
Most Republican candidates in the special election said they wanted to focus on Trump’s priorities and their district’s concerns, rather than making headlines themselves — an approach they say Greene has taken in her public conflicts with Democrats and even members of her own party.
“The difference between Marjorie and me is I’m not going to use the press to become a celebrity,” Republican Star Black said at a Feb. 16 candidate forum. “I will use the press to really show what I have done – the accomplishments.”
Trump endorsed Clay Fuller, northwest Georgia’s district attorney for the state’s Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. He underscored his support last month during a visit to Rome, the state’s 14th district, where he held a rally to tout his administration’s economic policies.
Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior” at the event.
Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller (left) shakes hands with President Trump as he arrives aboard Air Force One at Russell Regional Airport February 19 in Rome, Georgia.
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“I really love him,” said rally attendee Jill Fisher. “I think he’s a strong candidate, he seems to be a very good family man with great values. And I think he will bring a lot to Congress.”
Highlighting Fuller’s military service as an Air Force veteran, an ad for his campaign says, “‘America First’ is the story of his life.” »
Fuller faces several other GOP candidates in the primary, including former state Sen. Colton Moore. Moore previously won election to the state Legislature in the district and is considered one of the most right-leaning lawmakers at the state level.
“I am 100% pro-Trump,” Moore said in his campaign announcement video.
He made headlines himself. Last year, Moore was arrested for trying to enter the House chambers in Atlanta to attend GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s State of the State address. Moore argued that he had a constitutional right to enter the House. Moore had been barred from entering the chambers by Republican House Speaker Jon Burns for his disparaging comments about a late Georgia lawmaker during the unveiling of his portrait.
Moore’s record matters even more to some Republican Party voters than Trump’s support. Minus Dunaway, 14th District voter, says he’s a strong Trump supporter, but thinks Moore will do a better job implementing the president’s agenda than Trump’s choice.
“He actually knows what he’s doing,” Dunaway said of Moore. “He was a state representative, a state senator. He was the first to fight the people in the 2020 election in Georgia.”
Moore was among a group of GOP state lawmakers who called on lawmakers to investigate or impeach Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis after she accused Trump and others of trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, when Trump and his allies pushed baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Fuller insists Trump made the right choice in supporting his candidacy.
“I think they’re looking for someone to carry President Trump’s banner and support his agenda and fight for him at the Capitol,” Fuller told Georgia Public Broadcasting last month.
Some Republicans who attended the February rally remained undecided.
“I am not blindly following what [Trump] said,” said Clay Cooper of Rome.
Still, Cooper said Trump’s endorsement means he’ll give Fuller more thought. “[Fuller is] someone who [Trump] “What he thinks is very much in line with his message, his actions, so that certainly carries weight,” Cooper said.
Unlike a partisan primary, all candidates – Republicans, Democrats and third-party candidates – will be on the same ballot for voters in the special election. If no one gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to a runoff on April 7.
Follow the results below when polls close Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
NPR Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
