The standard uniform for most candidates running for public office consists of suits and loafers — maybe a blazer and some jeans. But Shawn Harris — the Black cattle farmer vying to replace former MAGA champion Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s U.S. Congressional District 14 — says he regularly wears a bulletproof vest on the campaign trail.
“I receive threats every day,” Harris told Capital B Atlanta during a recent interview. “[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.’”
Harris believes the threats he’s received stem from the fact that he’s a Black Democrat with a credible chance to fill Greene’s seat in Congress in what’s considered a dark-red, Republican U.S. Congressional district, which includes much of northwest Georgia.
Right now, the Tuskegee University graduate is one of 17 candidates competing in the race to replace Greene, who resigned last year after a public feud with President Donald Trump over Trump’s previous push not to release the Epstein files.
Early voting in the special election to replace Greene began Feb. 16 and ends Friday. Election Day for eligible voters in her former district is set for March 10.
Black Georgians make up about 12% of the population in District 14, which includes Catoosa, Chattooga, Cobb, Dade, Floyd, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield counties as well as the cities of Rome, Dallas, and Dalton.
Analysts have forecast the Republican vote will be split among GOP candidates, increasing a Democrat’s chances of winning in a likely April 7 runoff election. In 2024, Harris ran unsuccessfully against Greene, receiving 35% of the vote. The MAGA movement’s emerging divide has made the 14th District a more competitive battleground.
Republicans vying to replace Greene including former Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Clay Fuller, whom Trump endorsed in February. Other GOP candidates in the race include retired FEMA veteran Star Black, horse trainer Reagan Box, risk engineer Beau Brown, railroad supply chain professional Eric Cunningham, Mars Hill Community Church Pastor Tom Gray, former Dalton City Council Member Nicky Lama, former State Sen. Colton Moore, travel consultant Meg Strickland, businessman Brian Stover, former 14th District Republican Party Chairman Jim Tully, and high school JROTC instructor Jenna Turnipseed.
Political writer and retired business owner Jim Davis is the only other Democrat still in the race besides Harris. Hi-Tech Paging Inc. founder Rob “Rush” Ruszkowski is running as an independent. Libertarian candidate Andrew Underwood will also be on the ballot.
Harris is the 40-year military veteran turned cattle rancher who wants 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.
The U.S. Supreme Court recently determined that Trump’s taxes on foreign imports are unconstitutional. But the president responded by thumbing his nose at SCOTUS and raising global tariffs anyway.
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.
Harris said cuts to SNAP in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill hurt seniors and the needy families in his district.
“These are the little things that are affecting everybody across the board, not only the farmers,” he said.
Harris also wants to restore funding to Obamacare subsidies that have been cut under Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. He said he wants to expand federal funding to help recruit more doctors and nurses in District 14, which he referred to as a “health care desert.”
“We have hospitals, but guess what? We don’t actually have the doctors and nurses and specialists in the hospital,” Harris said. “If you get sick or have an accident or something happens, you go to the hospital, they stabilize you. But if you’re real bad, they fly you to Atlanta or they fly you to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We should not be living in a health care desert simply because of our zip code.”
Harris said Black voters in District 14 should support him because he will fight for the issues they care about.
“We’re going to go to D.C. and fight for everybody,” he said. “That’s something we haven’t had for five years under Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
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