Ruby red seat primed to flip as fed-up Republican ditches MAGA — and GOP distracted: Dem
After former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene turned on MAGA Republicans and President Donald Trump, resigning from her seat in Georgia’s 14th congressional district, a Democrat captured the most votes in a special election to replace her — fueling hopes of a long-shot blue flip in the solidly red district.
Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general and cattle farmer, earned more than 43,000 votes, but it wasn’t enough to win the seat with a majority of the vote on March 10.
Still, Harris told Raw Story in the days prior to his runoff race on April 7 that he was “feeling real good” about his chances to win Greene’s former seat, particularly as the district’s MAGA base is “not as strong as it used to be."
Shawn Harris on his cattle farm in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)
Harris, who took 37.3 percent of the vote last month, faces Republican Clay Fuller, a district attorney and Air Force veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump as an “America First Patriot,” who received 34.9 percent of the vote in a crowded Republican field that grew to more than 20 candidates at one point.
“With Marjorie Taylor Greene coming out there basically every day and saying that everything about MAGA was a lie, or everything that Donald Trump told you what he was going to do was a lie, and then Clay is, in turn, anything that President Trump said he's doing, Clay says, ‘Yes, I agree with it,’ including this war of choice [in Iran], including putting ICE everywhere, those things are the reason why people are actually saying 'I'm voting for Shawn,'” Harris said.
During a visit to the district from Trump in February, Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior.”
Fuller declined an interview with Raw Story.
'Sold his soul'
While MAGA is “the loudest part of the party, and it's Donald Trump's base,” the 14th congressional district saw little benefit from Greene while she was loudly backing Trump during her five years in Congress, Harris said.
“Too many times under Marjorie Taylor Greene, she voted with the party and left northwest Georgia out to dry … we didn't actually get any benefits for anything that Marjorie was doing, and if we send Clay, we're going to get even worse.”
If elected to Congress, Harris said he “will be a person with a backbone that will fight for Northwest Georgia” and “nobody can buy me.”
Harris’ fundraising receipts totaled $6.4 million, dwarfing the $1.2 million raised by Fuller as of March 18, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Harris emphasized receiving small dollar donations averaging around $25 and said he’s “not taking any money from any organizations that when I get there, they're going to be telling me how to vote.”
Harris also said he wouldn’t just vote along party lines if elected to Congress.
“If President Trump and his administration is doing something right, and it makes sense for Northwest Georgia, I'm going to support it 100 percent — that's what leaders do, and that's what I want to do as a representative for all of northwest Georgia,” Harris said.
“However, if President Trump’s leadership, his team, in itself, is not doing something that's benefiting northwest Georgia, I will be in a position to push back, and the reason why I've been in a position to push back is because, yes, I'm a Democrat, but I'm not tied to the party.
“Clay has sold his soul to President Trump. That means Clay's vote is already in the bag.”
Blue wave
Another reason why Harris hopes he can defy the odds and win the seat in the runoff is because Republican candidates in the district are still competing against Fuller in a primary election on May 19 for the November general election, distracting them from this race and making them less likely to endorse him, he said.
The runoff race is to immediately fill the vacancy left in Congress after Greene resigned in January.
“The Republicans are not collapsing around Clay,” Harris said.
Republican Clay Fuller speaks at an event in Lookout Mountain, Georgia on March 10. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Harris previously cut into Republican domination in the district when he ran against Greene in 2024, capturing nearly 135,000 votes and more than 35 percent of ballots cast.
Prior to that, Democrat Marcus Flowers cut Greene’s share of votes by nearly 10 percent, capturing more than 88,000 of his own in 2022, when she previously won with 75 percent of the vote in her first election in 2020.
Democrats are hoping to overtake Republicans’ slim majority in the House and even possibly flip the Senate, despite massive amounts of dark money funneling into Senate Republican races, Raw Story exclusively reported.
The Democratic party is also looking to state-level races as a bellwether for a blue wave as Democrats have flipped at least 30 seats, including the state House seat where Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, is located.
'Left behind'
Harris said he’s been able to appeal to voters across party lines because of economic issues under the Trump administration, such record-high gas-prices, reaching over $4 on average for the first time since 2022.
“It’s killing us to go to the gas pump or to the diesel pump, especially our farmers, because right now diesel prices are high and fertilizer prices are high,” Harris said.
“As a farmer, I can feel it myself, just like all the rest of them.”
If elected to Congress, Harris said one of his top priorities would be helping pass the Farm Bill as the farmers in his district are “tired of all of these subsidies,” which end up being passed through to farmers to pay the vendors they owe.
“We're in a situation where farmers need help today, and the administration is just moving too slow to actually help us,” Harris said.
Some former Republican farmers have broken with Trump over his fluctuating tariffs, which led to higher prices on essentials like lumber, fertilizer and farming equipment.
Harris said he’s working to earn the votes of Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike — even distributing Republicans for Shawn signs.
If he wins, Harris said, “Democrats would be happy, but at the end of the day, I'm not doing this for Democrats. I'm not doing this for independents, and I'm not doing this for Republicans”.
“I'm doing this for the hardworking people here in Northwest Georgia. Period … Because too many times northwest Georgia has been left behind.”
Facing credible threats, Harris has continued wearing a bulletproof vest at advertised public appearances, he told Raw Story, but that hasn't deterred him from engaging with the community, especially as the race will come down to turnout during a short voting period around the Good Friday and Easter holidays.
"We're not going to let those threats cause us not to continue to running this campaign," Harris said.
"Something I always tell my supporters is, courage is contagious, and when they see me out and about, I hope that motivates them to continue to go out and knock on doors, call people, because this race is going to come down to strictly turnout."
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