Runoff to replace MTG tests GOP hold in 14th District
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- National Republicans dig deep to defeat Jon Ossoff.
- A state Supreme Court race heats up as Sarah Hawkins Warren launches her first statewide ads.
- Brad Raffensperger debuts a deeply personal ad in the GOP race for governor.
High stakes
Voters will decide today who will replace former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for the remainder of her term in Congress, and all the pressure is on Republican Clay Fuller.
Fuller is expected to win the heavily Republican 14th Congressional District, but anything less than a commanding win will be interpreted as a victory of sorts for Democrat Shawn Harris. And if he ekes out a win, the fallout could be seismic.
Harris has been trying his best to appeal to GOP voters who are frustrated with rising prices under President Donald Trump. He lost to Greene in 2024 and has essentially been campaigning ever since, so many voters are now familiar with him.
“I’m not running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore,” he told Fox News on Monday. “What I’m doing is running to make sure that the people in this district actually have a real leader that’s going to stand up for them.”
Fuller has the support of the Republican Party establishment and aligned third-party groups that have spent heavily on advertisements and direct mail. Trump’s endorsement pushed him into the runoff. Now the question is whether being aligned with Trump has any impact on the runoff given the president’s sagging approval numbers.
Trump posted a message on Truth Social on Monday encouraging Republicans to head to the polls if they haven’t already.
“I am asking all Republicans, America First Patriots, and MAGA Warriors, to please GET OUT AND VOTE for a fantastic Candidate, Clay Fuller, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” the president wrote.
No matter what happens tonight, Fuller won’t have any time to rest after polls close today. He must pick his campaign back up immediately ahead of the May 19 primary, which will decide which Republican faces Harris in November for a full two-year term. Harris has no opposition in the Democratic primary, so he is on the November ballot regardless of tonight’s outcome.
If Fuller wins decisively tonight, many of the 10 Republicans who qualified for the primary are likely to drop out. But some won’t.
Former state Sen. Colton Moore has been quiet since he failed to make the runoff after the March special election. But he is on the ballot in May and no one thinks he will drop out, even if Fuller has a good night and enters the primary as the incumbent.
Things to know
Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:
- Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King became the most prominent statewide elected official to endorse Rick Jackson for governor, handing the billionaire health care executive a boost in an increasingly bruising GOP contest, Greg Bluestein reports.
- Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the city will begin enforcing curfews for teenagers after a deadly weekend shooting killed a 16-year-old girl and injured a 15-year-old in Piedmont Park.
- Fulton County officials say the Trump administration may have improperly used a criminal search warrant to seize the county’s 2020 election ballots after they had failed to get them though civil proceedings, the AJC’s Caleb Groves writes.
Going big
A super PAC controlled by Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate says it will spend $44 million on ads and messaging focused on defeating U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
That number will more than compete with Ossoff’s massive $25 million personal war chest, although national Democrats have not yet said how much they plan to spend in Georgia to keep Ossoff’s prized Senate seat in Democratic hands.
The Senate Leadership Fund’s announcement marks its largest investment ever in Georgia outside of runoff elections, and it far surpasses the money spent in 2020 and 2022 backing unsuccessful Republican contenders for the Senate, Greg Bluestein reports.
Although the ads will air across Georgia, spending will be concentrated in metro Atlanta. Live sports events like Atlanta Falcons and University of Georgia football games in the fall will be a primary target.
In total, the Senate Leadership Fund says it will spend an initial $342 million in eight competitive Senate races across the country. This includes $15 million in Alaska, $29 million in Iowa, $45 million in Michigan, $17 million in New Hampshire, $71 million in North Carolina, $79 million in Ohio and $42 million in Maine.
Court watch
Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren launched her first reelection ad today, part of a statewide broadcast and digital buy that casts her as a defender of judicial restraint and a nonpartisan bench.
She is facing an unusually formidable challenger in the May 19 election in former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, who jolted Georgia’s legal and political circles when she entered the race in February.
Jordan lost to Chris Carr in the 2022 attorney general race and gives Democrats a rare high-profile contender in the nonpartisan race for Supreme Court.
Warren’s spot leans heavily into rule-of-law themes, with the justice stressing the separation of powers and a judge’s “limited role to interpret the law as written.”
“I believe in a nonpartisan judiciary, impartial judges who don’t advocate for political positions or outcomes,” she says in the ad.
“I believe in deciding cases without bias or favor, treating everyone with dignity and respect. As a justice on your Supreme Court, I’ve upheld these values.”
Raff’s path
We told you yesterday that Brad Raffensperger and his team believe there’s a different path for him to get to the governor’s mansion. Today, the secretary of state began laying it out for voters.
Raffensperger launched his first television ad of the campaign, a multi-million-dollar statewide buy that leans on his biography rather than the attack-heavy messaging dominating the GOP contest.
In the 30-second spot, Raffensperger says his Christian faith has guided him through every chapter of his life and helped sustain him through the loss of his son, Brenton, to a fentanyl overdose.
“My Christian faith doesn’t always give me answers,” he says in the ad. “But it always gives me great hope.”
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast, we answer your questions about a late-session push to make a handful of metro Atlanta elections nonpartisan and the legal fight likely to follow. We also unpack the strategy behind Rick Jackson’s ad using praise from Burt Jones and what it reveals about the governor’s race.
Then, congressional candidate Rob Adkerson, a former top aide to U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, discusses his campaign, his views on Congress and foreign policy, and how he would represent the solidly Republican district Loudermilk currently represents.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Carr v. Jones
Attorney General Chris Carr is taking a swipe at Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, one of his GOP rivals in the upcoming gubernatorial primary, for what Carr says is Jones’ failure to secure meaningful property tax relief for Georgians this legislative session.
In a guest column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Carr writes:
“The Georgia House passed a proposal (House Bill 1116) that would have put a meaningful check on rising property taxes. It included a 3% cap on the annual growth of local and school property tax levies or the rate of inflation, whichever was higher. It also gave local communities additional tools to manage how they raise revenue. It was one of the most significant property tax reform proposals Georgia has seen in decades.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones led the Senate in rejecting that approach.”
While the Senate did reject the House proposal to cap property taxes, a final agreement capped property tax assessments instead.
Jones spent his time this session instead pushing for a full repeal of the state income tax. A House-Senate compromise on that idea yielded a reduction in income taxes instead.
Today in Washington
- Trump will have dinner with the U.S. Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor.
- The House and Senate are out this week.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will hold a press briefing on the Iran war.
Duncan’s gains
Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s campaign announced two more Democratic endorsements this week: Former state Rep. Pat Gardner and state Rep. Michelle Au.
Au’s endorsement is particularly notable since the Gwinnett doctor has fought against Georgia’s six-week abortion ban throughout her time at the Capitol, first as a state senator and later as a state House member.
In her endorsement, Au said Duncan went out of his way to help her during in her first term in the state Senate, even though she was a Democrat and he was then the Republican lieutenant governor.
“The true mark of leadership, and personal character, is what you do when you don’t have to,” she wrote.
Shoutouts
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Before you go
Voters in Georgia’s 14th congressional district may be choosing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s replacement today, but that doesn’t mean Greene has quietly retired from public life. On Sunday, Greene wrote that Trump’s Easter Day threat to bomb all of Iran’s bridges and power plants today “is not making America great. This is evil.”
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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