Shawn Harris, the bulletproof vest-wearing cattle farmer running to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former seat in Congress, is headed to a runoff against Republican Clayton Fuller in a Georgia special election that has gained national media attention.
The Democratic candidate and Tuskegee grad led the mostly Republican field Tuesday night, securing more than 37 percent of votes cast in the race, according to unofficial vote totals posted on the Georgia Secretary of State’s website around 9 p.m.
At his campaign watch party at the Jerusalem Grill in Rome, Harris told Capital B Atlanta he felt “nothing but confidence” before the unofficial results came in.
“I knew that we had did everything we needed to do,” Harris said during a phone interview. “I also believed in everybody here in the district. They were going to get the turnout out, and we did that.”
Fuller, the former district attorney who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, garnered more than 35 percent. Republican Colton Moore came in a distant third with just 12% of the vote.
Since none of the candidates secured more than 50% of the vote required by Georgia election law, the top two recipients, Harris and Fuller, will meet in a runoff April 7.
A field of 22 candidates competed to fill Greene’s vacated 14th district U.S. House seat this year. Greene resigned from Congress last year after feuding with Trump over his initial opposition to releasing the Epstein files.
Greene is the former MAGA champion and Trump loyalist who defeated Harris two years ago by a 29-point margin. The results of tonight’s race may be a warning for Republicans that their support among Trump’s MAGA base has weakened.
Harris noted that voters from all walks of life that he talked to in the district expressed dismay about the state of the economy. He suggested Trump may have alienated them during a recent rally in Rome when he told supporters he had “solved” the affordability crisis that he blamed on Democrats.
“Gas prices have went out the roof,” Harris said. “Everything is hurting people down here and they’re saying, ‘You know what? Trump came here two weeks ago and told us that he had fixed it. Well, he didn’t fix it.’”
Black Georgians make up about 12% of the population in Greene’s former district, which includes the cities of Rome, Dallas, Dalton in addition to parts of Catoosa, Chattooga, Cobb, Dade, Floyd, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield counties.
In a previous interview with Capital B Atlanta, the 40-year old military veteran spoke frankly about the challenges he faced on the campaign trail.
“I receive threats every day,” Harris said. “[There are] some crazies out there that have called or put things on social media. We have reported that to the police and in an abundance of caution, they say, ‘With everything that actually happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene, Shawn, it is best to put [body armor] on, especially when you go to events where it’s been publicized that this is where you’re going to be.’”
Undeterred, Harris continued to share his plans to improve affordability and business in the largely agricultural District 14 by fully funding the Farm Bill, restoring funding to SNAP benefits, and ensuring an end to the Trump administration tariffs that he says have hurt the profits of farmers.
Harris said farmers in his district, some of whom voted for Trump, are paying more for imports such as fertilizer because of the tariffs and are being used as pawns. The Farm Bill is legislation Congress typically passes every five years. It provides funding for agricultural, nutrition, conservation, and forestry policy programs, in addition to shaping food production, rural economies, and programs like SNAP, which temporarily lost funding during the most recent government shutdown.
It’s cuts to SNAP in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that Harris said hurt seniors and needy families in his district.
“These are the little things that are affecting everybody across the board, not only the farmers,” he said.
The winner in April’s runoff will serve out the remainder of Greene’s term and then run for reelection in November. The result could help tip the scales in a House of Representatives with 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats.
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