{"id":71129,"date":"2026-04-07T19:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/trump-backed-republican-pads-gops-fragile-house-majority-by-winning-showdown-for-mtgs-former-seat\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:56:24","slug":"trump-backed-republican-pads-gops-fragile-house-majority-by-winning-showdown-for-mtgs-former-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/trump-backed-republican-pads-gops-fragile-house-majority-by-winning-showdown-for-mtgs-former-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-backed Republican pads GOP&#8217;s fragile House majority by winning showdown for MTG&#8217;s former seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RINGGOLD, GA \u2014<\/strong> Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller just gave House Speaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/mike-johnson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mike Johnson<\/a> a little bit of breathing room as the GOP clings to a razor-thin majority in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Fuller, who was backed by President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>, on Tuesday defeated Democrat Shawn Harris in a special election to fill the empty U.S. House seat in Georgia&#8217;s solidly red 14th Congressional District, the Associated Press reports.<\/p>\n<p>The seat was left vacant when MAGA firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a bitter falling out with Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The special election came as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218\u2013214 majority in the House. The GOP was under the gun to make sure the Democrats didn&#8217;t pull off an upset in the special election, in a district in northwest Georgia that Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/primary-pause-political-firestorm-high-stakes-elections-month-take-center-stage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>PRIMARY PAUSE, POLITICAL FIRESTORM: HIGH-STAKES ELECTIONS THIS MONTH TAKE CENTER STAGE<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s extremely crucial, and we need the reinforcements,&#8221; Fuller told Fox News Digital on the eve of the runoff election.<\/p>\n<p>Fuller, a local district attorney and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard who&#8217;s served in the Air Force since 2009, added, &#8220;I think the voters in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/southeast\/georgia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgia<\/a> 14 understand that, and they&#8217;re looking forward to sending a MAGA America first fighter up on Capitol Hill to support that agenda.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-hits-campaign-trail-key-battleground-race-replace-marjorie-taylor-greene-heats-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>TRUMP HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN KEY BATTLEGROUND AS RACE TO REPLACE MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HEATS UP<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Asked if he was concerned that MAGA supporters would sit out what was expected to be a low turnout election since the president is not on the ballot, Fuller said Trump voters &#8220;would crawl through glass to make sure they have a representative up there that fight for them and fight for President Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Harris, a cattle farmer who spent four decades in the military and retired as an Army brigadier general, needed the support of crossover Republicans in order to pull off an upset.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am a Democrat, but I&#8217;m not tied to the party,&#8221; Harris highlighted as he spoke with Fox News Digital on Monday. And Harris argued, &#8220;My opponent, Clay, cannot say that. He actually sold his soul to President Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Harris narrowly edged Fuller amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-ally-clay-fuller-advances-georgia-fight-mtgs-former-seat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>first round of voting<\/u><\/a> in early March. Since no candidate topped 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to Tuesday&#8217;s runoff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The congressional seat \u2014 which stretches from Atlanta&#8217;s outer suburbs to the state&#8217;s northwest borders with Alabama and Tennessee \u2014 was left vacant when Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/jeffrey-epstein\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> files.<\/p>\n<p>While Greene remains popular among Republicans in the district, Fuller said the voters he talked with on the campaign trail were &#8220;focused on the fights of the future, not anything that had happened in the past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he spoke with Greene, Fuller said he &#8220;reached out to Rep. Greene, had conversations with her and got advice on the district, and I&#8217;ll keep those conversations confidential.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Harris, who as a first-time candidate lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in her 2024 re-election, emphasized that he wasn&#8217;t &#8220;running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore,&#8221; and that his name &#8220;carries more weight than any other name in this district.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RINGGOLD, GA \u2014 Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller just gave House Speaker Mike Johnson a little bit of breathing room as the GOP clings to a razor-thin majority in Congress. Fuller, who was backed by President Donald Trump, on Tuesday defeated Democrat Shawn Harris in a special election to fill the empty U.S. House seat &#8230; <a title=\"Trump-backed Republican pads GOP&#8217;s fragile House majority by winning showdown for MTG&#8217;s former seat\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/trump-backed-republican-pads-gops-fragile-house-majority-by-winning-showdown-for-mtgs-former-seat\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump-backed Republican pads GOP&#8217;s fragile House majority by winning showdown for MTG&#8217;s former seat\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}