In Georgia’s 14th District Special Runoff, Democrats Pulled Off Their Biggest Shift Yet
The race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District was quickly called for Clay Fuller, a Republican, but the seat had the largest leftward swing in a special election since the start of 2025. It continues a trend in which Democrats have been showing strong improvements in districts won easily by President Trump in 2024.
Mr. Trump won the district by 37 percentage points in 2024. Mr. Fuller’s lead over Shawn Harris, a Democrat, in Tuesday’s special runoff in the district is expected to be about 12 percentage points once all votes are in, according to estimates by The New York Times. That would amount to a 25-point shift from the 2024 presidential race.
Floyd County, Georgia, which is home to Rome, the region’s largest city, as well as Berry College, saw the biggest shift in the 14th District, at around 30 points. Other notable shifts came in Paulding County, which is part of metro Atlanta, and Whitfield County. Whitfield, where 31 percent of the population is Hispanic, is home to Dalton, which is known by some as the “carpet capital of the world” for its prominence in the carpet industry. Mr. Harris outright won in the areas of Cobb County that fall within the district — a region where Mr. Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene came out ahead in 2024.
The special election in Georgia, which advanced to a runoff in March, was held to replace Ms. Greene, who resigned from the seat in January. Ms. Greene won the district by about 29 points in 2024. The special election had more than a dozen candidates in March, with the Republican hopefuls amassing an aggregate vote margin of about 20 points, which would represent a 17-point shift from Mr. Trump’s margin of victory in 2024 — a fairly average mark in recent special elections.
While the special elections have been viewed by some as a sign of strength for the Democratic Party, they offer limited insight into what could be expected in November’s general elections. Special elections tend to have low turnouts, and generally draw out more highly engaged, older and educated voters.