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After a crowded race to replace former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in northwest Georgia, two candidates reached the top of the pack and will be heading to a runoff.

Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller both got more than 30% of the vote, but far from the 51% majority needed to win the election. Harris was competing with two other Democratic candidates, and Fuller had to fight against more than a dozen Republicans that entered the race.

Now, the two candidates can take each other on directly. Republicans took home more votes overall, so if all voters who chose a Republican the first time voted for Fuller, he’s a clear favorite for the seat.

This hasn’t discouraged Harris, who has spent years building up his name recognition in Georgia’s 14th congressional district since he ran against Greene in 2024. He’s hoping to appeal to not only the Democrats in the district but also Independents and center-leaning Republicans who may be hesitant to support a MAGA candidate as President Trump’s approval rating continues to decline.

The runoff will be held April 7.

Here’s what you need to know about the two candidates.

Fuller’s wagon is hitched to Trump’s horse

Clay Fuller is the District Attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, and he went to Emory University for his bachelor’s degree, Cornell for his M.P.A. and Southern Methodist University for a Juris Doctor.

He went to the Air Force’s Officer Training School and the Marine Expeditionary Warfare School. He hold a master’s degree in military operational art and science from the Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Alabama. He was deployed in 2024 as a legal advisor to the Combined Air Operations Center at Shaw Air Force Base in Qatar, and he completed a White House Fellowship in both the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Defense during Trump’s first term. He remains in the Air National Guard.

Fuller’s motto is “Faith. Duty. America First.” and he has stayed closely aligned with the president on policy, eventually landing him the Trump endorsement.

During a recent trip from president to a steel manufacturer in Rome, Georgia, Fuller appeared on stage with Trump and called him the “greatest president in our country’s history.”

Fuller doubled down his support during his election day remarks following the race being called as a runoff.

“Besides all the people in this room that have made this possible this evening, there’s one person in particular that I really have to stay thankful to,” Fuller said inside The Canoe House in Rome. “For those of you that were questioning how important President Donald J. Trump is to this country, to Georgia 14th and the state of Georgia, you look at that screen behind me and you see what this man means to the people here in this community, what he means to the people in this country and what he means to the MAGA movement.”

On Fuller’s website, he lists his four priorities as an “America first economy,” supporting mass deportation, supporting the first and second amendments as a constitutional conservative and staying tough on crime with his legal background.

He has also regularly referred to himself as a “MAGA warrior” who will carry the movement into a new era.

In recent remarks on social media, Fuller has said the U.S. should “stop importing people who hate us and ban Sharia Law nationwide,” likely in reference to recent attacks in New York City and Michigan.

He has also been a vocal supporter of the strikes in Iran, calling the late Ayatollah a “monster” and saying the current government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funds puts American lives at risk amid threats from the “Islamic Regime.”

Fuller believes that life begins at conception (this has been heavily debated between politicians, religious leaders and scientists), and that “abortion has no place in a civilized society.”

He also says he would support a closed border, ending any migration from what he calls the “third world,” deporting all undocumented people, banning welfare for noncitizens (of which many are already prohibited), and supporting both the Border Patrol and ICE. These remarks come as two immigration processing facilities and detention centers are slated to open in Georgia, though not in his district, and have been met with extreme opposition by the towns in which they are being built.

Harris says this isn’t the same race he’s run before

Harris may be the political veteran in this race, but he believes the race against Fuller is different than ones he has run in the past.

Harris announced his candidacy for the seat long before Greene resigned her position in January, setting himself up to run against her again in the 2026 midterms. Greene’s public falling out with President Trump and the MAGA movement just brought the goal posts a little closer.

He currently works as a cattle farmer, but spent four decades in the military, enlisting in the Marines and serving as a combat infantry commander in Afghanistan. When he retired from the military he had reached the rank of Brigadier General, a one-star general.

Harris says he doesn’t have strong ties to the Democratic Party, and would rather represent all northwest Georgians in Washington, but that hasn’t stopped him from receiving support from a career Democrat.

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg endorsed Harris earlier in the campaign, and following the runoff call on March 10, visited Rome for a shared event with Harris about veterans and the direction of the 14th district.

“Donald Trump is generally more interested in crowd sizes than I am. Still, I couldn’t help but notice that our event yesterday for (Shawn Harris) was a bit larger than when Trump visited this same district a few weeks ago,” Buttigieg said in a post on X. “There’s great energy and enthusiasm on the ground for this campaign. Shawn is demonstrating what it looks like when we show up, lead with our values, and compete for every vote. This is a very conservative area, but there is a new kind of coalition to be built, and there is no such thing as a permanently red district.”

In an election night speech outside his campaign headquarters in Rome, Harris said that he didn’t expect Georgia’s 14th to turn blue, but he did believe it could become “pink” with enough support.

Harris has outlined five key areas of focus for his campaign: agriculture, healthcare, affordability, national security and veterans, according to his website.

He supports fully funding the Farm Bill and protecting SNAP benefits, as well as investing in water infrastructure for rural town and advancing technology access for small farmers. Harris says he would defend Medicaid and Medicare while expanding physician access to rural communities and supporting medical marijuana legalization for treatment of veterans and those with chronic pain. He also supports a woman’s right to choose and restoring Roe v. Wade.

He has advocated for transparency from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the ICE facilities in Georgia, as well as modernizing the asylum process and expanding Narcan access to address the fentanyl crisis.

Harris has also publicly stated he will not accept money from The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who instead endorsed Fuller, saying he is “not taking money from outside groups trying to buy influence in this race.”

He also spoke out against the strikes in Iran, citing a lack of clear objective and the cost to U.S. troops and American taxpayers.

Irene Wright is the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.