Trump-backed Republican pads GOP's fragile House majority by winning showdown for MTG's former seat

RINGGOLD, GA — Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller just gave House Speaker Mike Johnson a little bit of breathing room as the GOP clings to a razor-thin majority in Congress.

Fuller, who was backed by President Donald Trump, on Tuesday defeated Democrat Shawn Harris in a special election to fill the empty U.S. House seat in Georgia's solidly red 14th Congressional District, the Associated Press reports.

The seat was left vacant when MAGA firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a bitter falling out with Trump.

The special election came as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House. The GOP was under the gun to make sure the Democrats didn't pull off an upset in the special election, in a district in northwest Georgia that Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.

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"It's extremely crucial, and we need the reinforcements," Fuller told Fox News Digital on the eve of the runoff election.

Fuller, a local district attorney and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard who's served in the Air Force since 2009, added, "I think the voters in Georgia 14 understand that, and they're looking forward to sending a MAGA America first fighter up on Capitol Hill to support that agenda."

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Asked if he was concerned that MAGA supporters would sit out what was expected to be a low turnout election since the president is not on the ballot, Fuller said Trump voters "would crawl through glass to make sure they have a representative up there that fight for them and fight for President Trump."

Harris, a cattle farmer who spent four decades in the military and retired as an Army brigadier general, needed the support of crossover Republicans in order to pull off an upset.

"I am a Democrat, but I'm not tied to the party," Harris highlighted as he spoke with Fox News Digital on Monday. And Harris argued, "My opponent, Clay, cannot say that. He actually sold his soul to President Trump."

Harris narrowly edged Fuller amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the first round of voting in early March. Since no candidate topped 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to Tuesday's runoff.

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The congressional seat — which stretches from Atlanta's outer suburbs to the state's northwest borders with Alabama and Tennessee — was left vacant when Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

While Greene remains popular among Republicans in the district, Fuller said the voters he talked with on the campaign trail were "focused on the fights of the future, not anything that had happened in the past."

Asked if he spoke with Greene, Fuller said he "reached out to Rep. Greene, had conversations with her and got advice on the district, and I'll keep those conversations confidential."

Harris, who as a first-time candidate lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in her 2024 re-election, emphasized that he wasn't "running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore," and that his name "carries more weight than any other name in this district."