Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller -- who received President Donald Trump's endorsement -- will advance to a runoff election next month to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after a jam-packed special election race, the Associated Press projects.
The runoff is set to take place April 7.
Georgia Republicans had feared that the crowded Republican field and Democratic consolidation around Harris, a farmer and veteran Army brigadier general, who ran against Greene in 2024, would help boost the Democrat. Not only did Harris make the runoff, but he was leading Fuller in the AP's tally of voting on Tuesday night.
However, Georgia's 14th Congressional District is predominately conservative and unlikely to elect a Democrat to the seat. (Harris lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in 2024.)
The results indicate that the crowded field of GOP candidates -- of the more than a dozen candidates on the ballot, the majority were Republicans -- gave an advantage to the Democrats, even in a deep-red district.
But they also indicate that Trump's endorsement was able to help elevate his favored candidate.
In a race that many considered to be a test of the Trump endorsement in Georgia, Fuller was projected to prevail over right-wing firebrand Colton Moore, who currently held around 12% of the vote, according to the AP.
Moore is a former Georgia state senator who was arrested last year at the Georgia state Capitol after attempting to disrupt Gov. Brian Kemp's State of the State address, and had positioned himself as an anti-establishment candidate in the race.
The projection that Fuller -- who presents as a more traditional conservative -- will advance to the runoff also points to the kind of tone voters in the 14th District appear to be looking for in a post-Greene, who was once one of the most aggressive attack dogs of the MAGA movement.
Trump stepped in last month to lend his endorsement to Fuller, a local district attorney and Air National Guard officer who was a White House fellow in the first Trump administration. Speaking in the northwest Georgia district to deliver remarks on his economic agenda last month, Trump brought Fuller up on stage with him.
"I think he's gonna be just a total winner, and it's what we want," Trump told supporters in Rome, Georgia.
Heading into the primary, Martha Zoller, a Georgia-based conservative political commentator said the race will be a "real test for the Trump endorsement."
Greene's surprise resignation from the House of earlier this year sent political shockwaves throughout the country -- but nowhere more so than her own Georgia district.
Greene's abrupt exit from politics followed a public break with Trump over a number of issues -- most notably the release of the files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The one-time Trump ally's departure launched a wide-open special election in Georgia's deep-red 14th Congressional District.
Cole Muzio, president of the Georgia-based conservative organization Frontline Policy Council, said that while Greene's "antics probably wore on some people," the former lawmaker remained popular in her district.
"I think they had an affection for [Greene] and her combativeness, and particularly her loyalty to the president," said Muzio of Greene's constituents.
The runoff election next month is only to fill the remainder of Greene's term, meaning whoever wins will have to run again in a separate race for the full two-year term that starts in January 2027 -- a separate election that begins with party primaries on May 19.