(WASHINGTON) — In Georgia runoff election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, 2 veterans pitch opposing views on Iran war
In the special election runoff in Georgia’s deep-red 14th Congressional District, the two military veterans who are running to replace former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene find themselves with differing views on the ongoing Iran war.
The two candidates, Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller, will go head-to-head at the ballot box on Tuesday, in a special election runoff that will serve as one of the fist glimpses into the role the war in Iran — something Greene and other members of the Make America Great Again movement have criticized — might play in this year’s midterms.
Harris, a retired Army brigadier general, told moderators at an Atlanta Press Club debate last month that the Iran war is “not a war we should be in.”
“I spent 40 years in the military. The reality of it is, this war that we’re in right now is a war of choice,” Harris said.
Harris’ Trump-backed opponent holds a different view on the war.
Fuller, who served overseas with the Air National Guard, said on the debate stage that “our country is safer because of what President Trump has done regarding Iran.”
Greene has been outspoken about her opposition to the war, saying as recently as Sunday in a statement on X that Trump “has gone insane.”
“This NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024,” Greene wrote.
In an interview with ABC News, Harris slammed the Trump administration for failing to communicate their reasoning for military action to the public, and for the oil high prices caused by the war.
“The United States is suffering right now from these high oil prices, from these higher fuel prices, and this very high diesel. And because I live in a rural area, we are also suffering from the high inflation on fertilizer,” Harris, who runs a cattle farm, told ABC News.
“I 100% support our military. They are doing an outstanding job,” Harris added. “We will win this war militarily. However, we can lose this war politically.”
Fuller, the district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, declined to be interviewed by ABC News for this story.
Carl Cavalli, a political science professor at the University of North Georgia, told ABC News that dissatisfaction with the war in Iran among Republicans might serve in Harris’ favor.
A recent CNN poll found that 28% of Republicans disapprove of the Iran war.
“I don’t know whether it’s nearly enough to overcome the heavy Republican majority in the district, but as the war drags on, it could become more of an issue in the general election in November,” said Cavalli.
Greene’s surprise resignation from the House earlier this year led to a jam-packed March 10 special election where no one candidate won 50% of the vote. Harris and Fuller finished in the top two, advancing to Tuesday’s runoff.
But the runoff is only to fill the remainder of Greene’s term, meaning whoever wins will have to run again in a separate election for a full two-year term that begins with next month’s party primaries, meaning Georgians could see a Fuller-Harris rematch come November.
In a district Trump won by 39 points in 2024, Fuller remains the strong favorite to win on Tuesday.
“The 14th District is united behind President Trump and his candidate Clay Fuller because they understand we can’t afford to give any ground to the radical left or their candidates,” Fuller campaign spokesperson Will Hampson told ABC News in a statement.
But the coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans that Harris has built has caught the attention of moderate national Democrats such as Pete Buttigieg, another military veteran, who traveled to the northwest Georgia district to stump for Harris last month.
Harris drew comparisons between himself and the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, telling ABC News that both politicians are “stand-alone leaders.”
“I’m a Democrat, but I am not tied to the party. And that simply means I don’t care if you’re Democrat, independent or Republican. If you live in Northwest Georgia … I work directly for you, nobody else,” Harris said.
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