• President Trump visits Rome, Georgia on Thursday to discuss the economy as early voting continues in a crowded 18-candidate special election
• Trump endorsed Clay Fuller on Feb. 4 but told reporters 12 days later he still needs to “choose one,” raising questions about the endorsement’s strength
• The race has exposed fractures in the MAGA coalition, with Republican candidates distancing themselves from Greene’s combative style while embracing her policy positions

ROME, GA (TDR) — President Donald Trump arrived in northwest Georgia on Thursday for his first visit to the state since winning reelection, stepping into a Georgia 14th district special election that has become a test of his influence over the Republican base he once shared with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The White House framed the trip as an economic address focused on affordability and rising wages, including a tour of a local steel facility. But the political subtext is impossible to miss. Rome sits in the heart of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District — the seat Greene vacated in January after a very public falling out with the president — and early voting began Monday for a March 10 special election featuring 18 remaining candidates.

“President Trump’s visit to Rome will underscore the work that this Administration has already done to raise real wages and accelerate economic growth.”

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That was the official White House line. The unofficial reality involves a razor-thin House majority of 218-214 and a president who, aboard Air Force One on Feb. 16, appeared to forget he had already picked a candidate.

Trump’s Endorsement Confusion Clouds The Race

On Feb. 4, Trump gave Clay Fuller — the former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard — his “Complete and Total Endorsement” via Truth Social.

“It is my Great Honor to endorse America First Patriot, Clay Fuller, who is running to represent the wonderful people of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.”

Fuller immediately made the endorsement the centerpiece of his campaign. Two other Republican candidates — Christian Hurd and Jared Craig — dropped out and endorsed him. House Speaker Mike Johnson piled on with his own backing.

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Then came the confusion. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Feb. 16, Trump discussed the Georgia trip and the crowded field:

“Well, we have a lot of people that want to take Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene’s place, and many, many candidates, and I have to choose one, and they say whoever I endorse is going to win.”

That was 13 days after he had already publicly endorsed Fuller. The comment left political observers and candidates scrambling to interpret whether the president might be reconsidering — or simply forgot.

“THANK YOU, Mr. President. This is the honor of a lifetime. I will not let you or Georgia’s 14th District down.”

Fuller’s response to the original endorsement remains pinned prominently on his social media, but the uncertainty raises a practical question for voters: does a presidential endorsement carry the same weight when the president doesn’t appear to remember making it?

A Crowded Field Exposes MAGA Fault Lines

The special election features 16 Republicans, three Democrats, one Libertarian and one independent competing on a single ballot. If no candidate clears 50 percent — and with this many contenders, a runoff is virtually certain — the top two advance to an April 7 runoff regardless of party.

That math is what makes this race nationally significant. Decision Desk HQ analyst Geoffrey Skelley has noted that the large Republican field could split the conservative vote enough to let a Democrat slip into the runoff alongside one Republican — even in a district Trump carried by 37 points in 2024.

At a GOP forum in Dalton on Feb. 12, a straw poll of 190 attendees revealed the internal competition. State Sen. Colton Moore won 45 percent, while Trump-endorsed Fuller finished second with just 19 percent. Jim Tully, the former 14th District Republican Party chair, took third with 27 votes.

“I should be the next congressman for Georgia 14 because President Trump has chosen our campaign and endorsed us to carry on the MAGA agenda into the next decade.”

That was Fuller at a recent Atlanta Press Club forum, making his case. But Moore, who built his brand by clashing with Georgia’s Republican establishment and was once removed from the state Senate Republican caucus, called Trump’s endorsement of Fuller “unfortunate” while still praising the president as “the greatest president of our lifetimes.”

What emerged at the candidate forums was a consistent pattern: Republican candidates embracing Greene’s policy positions while explicitly rejecting her combative approach.

“The biggest difference between Marjorie and I is I don’t believe in theatrics and drama. Too much of our politics has separated and divided us as a nation when really we are all fighting the same basic problems.”

That was Reagan Box, a horse trainer running as a Republican. Businessman Brian Stover echoed the sentiment, calling himself “kind of a quiet kind of guy” — a not-so-subtle contrast with the congresswoman who made national headlines almost weekly.

The Greene Fallout: Policy Vs. Personality

Greene’s departure from Congress remains the defining backdrop of this race. Once Trump’s most vocal defender in the House, she broke with him over several issues that exposed genuine policy fractures within the MAGA coalition.

The split accelerated when Greene joined Democrats to force a vote on releasing FBI files related to Jeffrey Epstein over Trump’s initial objections. She also criticized Trump’s stance on Israel and the war in Gaza, questioned rising Affordable Care Act premium costs and accused the administration of gaslighting Americans on prices.

Trump responded by calling her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene” and “wacky.” Greene announced her resignation in November 2025, effective Jan. 5 of this year.

“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for.”

That was Greene in her resignation letter. In a subsequent 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, Greene said Republicans are “terrified to step out of line” when it comes to Trump — a statement that carries particular weight now as candidates in her former district navigate between loyalty to the president and responsiveness to constituents who supported both Trump and Greene.

“I’ve never owed him anything. But I fought for him and for America First. And he called me a traitor for standing with these women.”

The irony is not lost on political analysts: the very issues Greene raised — health care affordability, transparency on the Epstein files and domestic policy priorities over foreign entanglements — are the same concerns constituents in the 14th District told reporters worry them most.

The Democratic Long Shot

Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army Brigadier General and cattle farmer who challenged Greene in 2024, is banking on Republican vote-splitting to reach the runoff.

“When Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump went through their divorce, I call it a divorce, and then when Marjorie quit on the people of northwest Georgia, now the Republican Party is in a civil war with themselves.”

Harris earned 35.6 percent against Greene in 2024 — outperforming Kamala Harris’s 31.5 percent in the same district. He’s campaigning on rural health care access, support for farmers and economic issues affecting working families in the district.

“Yes, I’m a Democrat. But I am not tied to the party.”

The Cook Political Report rates the 14th District as the most Republican-leaning in Georgia. But with 16 Republicans dividing the conservative vote, the structural math creates at least theoretical opening for Harris — particularly if Republican voters can’t coalesce quickly around a single candidate.

“People, farmers are hurting across the board in the district. The people are saying it’s time for something different.”

What’s Really At Stake

Beyond the district itself, the race carries national implications for House control. Republicans hold a 218-214 majority, meaning they can afford to lose no more than two seats and still maintain control. The president himself has warned that losing the House could lead to another impeachment effort.

The 14th District race also serves as an early indicator of whether Trump’s endorsement remains the decisive factor in Republican primaries — or whether the MAGA coalition is fragmenting in ways that the Greene saga foreshadowed. Moore’s straw poll dominance over the Trump-endorsed Fuller, while limited to one event, suggests the endorsement’s gravitational pull may have limits in a district that knew Greene’s brand of populism up close.

For the district’s residents — in communities like Dalton with its large immigrant and Latino population, or rural counties where ACA coverage and hospital closures are daily realities — the question isn’t just which candidate wins. It’s whether whoever takes this seat will represent the actual policy concerns that drove Greene’s break with Trump, or simply replicate the loyalty-first model that the president demands.

Does a presidential endorsement still guarantee victory in a district where the last representative was driven out for prioritizing policy disagreements over personal loyalty — and if not, what does that signal for the 2026 midterms?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from the Georgia Recorder’s comprehensive race coverage, reporting by FOX 5 Atlanta on Trump’s visit and FOX 5 Atlanta on the Fuller endorsement, NewsChannel 9’s coverage of the endorsement confusion, The Hill’s reporting on the Fuller endorsement, the Chattanooga Times Free Press on the Dalton straw poll and Harris’s candidacy, NPR on Greene’s resignation, CBS News’ 60 Minutes interview with Greene, CNN’s analysis of the Greene-Trump split, Georgia Public Broadcasting on early voting, Ballotpedia’s election overview, and Fox News on House majority dynamics.

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