Feb 4 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed a conservative local prosecutor in a Georgia special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives amid an acrimonious split with the president.
Trump said that he was throwing his support behind Clay Fuller, 44, the district attorney for four counties in northwest Georgia, describing him as an “America First Patriot” and a proponent of the president’s Make America Great Again movement.
“He is strongly supported by the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Georgia,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The endorsement is expected to boost Fuller’s chances in the March 10 election to replace Greene, who had been one of the most prominent voices in the MAGA movement before breaking with Trump late last year.
The split was driven primarily by Greene’s aggressive push to have the Department of Justice release files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, as well as her criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza and U.S. aid to the country.
Angered by her stances, Trump called her a “traitor” and withdrew his support for her. Greene’s resignation from her seat representing Georgia’s 14th district in the House of Representatives became effective in January.
In addition to Fuller, former Georgia state Senator Colton Moore – a staunchly conservative and pro-Trump Republican – has been seen as a front-runner in a crowded race of 16 Republicans.
Democrat Shawn Harris, a 59-year-old cattle farmer and retired brigadier general who lost to Greene in 2024, is running again in the conservative district. Harris got 35.6% of the vote in 2024, compared to Greene’s 64.4% of the vote.
In announcing his candidacy, Fuller characterized himself as an “America First prosecutor” in sync with Trump. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Fuller says he backs Trump’s mass deportation efforts and would work to protect gun rights.
“This is the honor of a lifetime. I will not let you or Georgia’s 14th District down,” Fuller said in a statement following Trump’s endorsement on Wednesday.
If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will face off in an April 7 runoff.
Moore did not respond to a request for comment.
Harris, in a statement to Reuters, criticized Fuller’s recent vow to make sure all Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are nominated to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Fuller posted a video with those comments to X on January 24, the same day that federal immigration officers fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, sparking protests and widespread outrage.
“That’s not MAGA, that’s just crazy,” Harris said in the statement. “Georgians have had enough of that kind of nonsense.”
(reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Edwina Gibbs)
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