Veteran Shawn Harris spent four decades in the military and has his sights on a new mission: representing Georgia residents in the United States Congress.
The retired Army brigadier general is looking to pull a major political upset in less than a week as he faces off against Republican Clay Fuller in a runoff election to replace discontented Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She resigned from Congress on Jan. 5, 2026, following a public feud with President Donald Trump for reasons associated with the lack of releasing the Epstein files, among other differences in opinion.
Either Harris or Fuller, a Trump-endorsed district attorney and U.S. Air National Guard veteran, will be victorious on April 7. Neither candidate surpassed the 50% vote threshold during the March 10 special election, when Harris claimed approximately 37.3% of the vote and Fuller claimed 34.9%. Colton Moore, a Republican eliminated from contention, garnered 11.6% of the vote.
Although Harris faces an uphill battle due to regional demographics and Republican dominance, he expressed confidence about his chances in an interview with Military.com.
“We are feeling outstanding,” Harris told Military.com. “This election is a turnout election. Right now here in Georgia, we’re in the holidays, the holy week. But on top of that, we’ve also got spring break going on. What I’m doing is focusing on just getting everybody to the polls as soon as possible.”
Military.com reached out to the Fuller campaign requesting an interview. No response was received.
The Shadow of Marjorie Taylor Greene
Harris, a Democrat, is familiar with Greene as he ran against her in November 2024 to represent District 14 in Northwest Georgia that includes Cobb and Polk counties. She defeated him by roughly 28 percentage points and 110,000 votes.
Asked how he compares his original political foray to the present, Harris said, “I’m a better candidate.”
“The first time I ran, I was still very rigid,” Harris said. “I just came out of the military, I was in a brand new arena. It’s been three years since I’ve been out of base, three years since I’ve been out in the military. I have been talking to the people throughout the entire district the entire time.
“I’m very comfortable now. On top of that, I know a lot of people in the district personally, Democrats and Republicans, and they know me and respect me. So, we took everything that we learned from the time that I ran against Marjorie Taylor Greene, and we’re applying it now.”
He said that has translated to a better ground game and more cogent fundraising efforts.
Asked about Greene’s dramatic shift from hard-MAGA to denouncing the president and his administration, Harris referred to it as “Greene 2.0” and said she’s actually moved from her “extreme” positions to more moderate ones like he has.
“She talks about insurance…she talks about houses, where corporate America’s buying up all the houses and just everyday people can’t afford to even compete to get one,” he said. “She talks about the Epstein files that need to be released, she talks about how we should not be in this particular war.”
While Trump has endorsed Fuller, Greene has stayed out of the fray.
“I tell you one thing that Marjorie has not done,” Harris added. “President Trump has endorsed Fuller. But Marjorie Taylor Greene, that still carries more weight than Donald Trump in this district. Marjorie Taylor Greene has not come out and endorsed Fuller at all.
“So, by default, Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying Fuller is not the person to replace her.”
Affordability, Immigration and National Security Rule the Conversation
Harris and Fuller differ on a plethora of issues.
Although he is running as a Democrat, Harris considers himself a moderate who separates himself from the political machine that is the national Democratic Party.
Clay, he can’t stand on his own two feet because he had to get the endorsement of Donald Trump to even be able to compete against me. But with that being said, that endorsement does not mean that he’s going to win this election.
Harris, a Polk County cattle producer who grew up on his family’s farm in Blakeley, has a five-point campaign plan that addresses agriculture, health care, affordability, national and border security, and veterans.
That includes passing a farm bill that benefits small and medium-sized businesses as opposed to corporations, protecting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, protecting congressional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, cracking down on price gouging, funding rural broadband, expanding port screening and modernizing asylum processing with swifter results, and stopping Congress’ push to privatize veteran health care.
“The No. 1 issue is still affordability,” Harris said. “I was saying that a few weeks ago, but now in this war that we’re in—a war of choice has now even raised that even more based on gas prices, diesel prices. Because our area is very heavy on agriculture farmers…fertilizer cost is just killing our farmers.
“That is what I’m hearing across the board, kitchen table issues, people saying to me, ‘Shawn, please help us because we put a lot of our kids into the military,’ so they’re concerned about the war. On top of that, they’re concerned about how they’re just going to be able to pay their bills because right now it’s just killing everybody.”
Fuller’s campaign agenda includes pushing Trump’s “America First” agenda, with his website not offering specifics beyond “standing with backbone against the Socialists, Democrats and weak Republicans in Washington.”
The self-described constitutional conservative who wants to bring legal justice to narcotics traffickers also “supports all efforts to empower” the Trump administration to remove “millions” of illegal immigrants.
“Clay will use his legal skills to fight back against the radical left as they try to limit our Constitutional freedoms, most importantly those enshrined in our 1st and 2nd Amendments. Our God given rights shall NOT be infringed, period,” Fuller’s campaign site reads.
The Average District 14 Voter
The average Georgia District 14 voter “is a hard-working person,” said Harris, who is married to a physician and has five sons and four grandchildren.
He said that most residents have to work two jobs just to make ends meet, projecting the average annual income in a range between $40,000 and $65,000.
“Most are not part of the stock market,” Harris said. “So, when the president says we’re making a whole bunch of money in the stock market, that does not affect most people here in the 14th.”
He’s also focused on bringing generational jobs to his potential constituents. By that, he means jobs coming from major, large companies where employees can make a livable wage and successfully purchase a home rather than “have to try to be 40 years old before you can even think about buying a little small house.”
“That’s us in a nutshell,” he said. “We’re good people, we’re God-fearing people, we’re Christians, we’re Muslims, we’re everything because here in Northwest Georgia, you’ve got a very diverse group of people across the board.”
How Iran War Could Help Harris’ Chances
The aforementioned war in Iran may throw a wrench in this special election consisting of two military veterans, as issues surrounding affordability are top of mind not just to Georgians but most Americans.
Harris said that while he respects Fuller as an opponent and a veteran, he doesn’t understand his fealty to the president.
“I’m quite surprised because Clay, when I see him face-to-face…I always thank him for his service because he’s a veteran,” Harris said. “But then I turn back around and say, ‘As a veteran, I can’t believe how he would sell his soul to Donald Trump,’ and then on top of that full-throttle get in support of this war.”
Harris said the ongoing conflict in the Middle East not only puts American lives at risk but has caused the highest oil spikes in about four years due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“The president of the United States has not even come to the American people and told us why we are in the war,” he added. “He hasn’t told us, what is the end state? He hasn’t told us, how is this war in our strategic interest? … More than 50,000 troops are back in the Middle East. It’s never been that high since we were in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Harris believes his military experience has readied him for this moment. As he put it, nothing is more important to any cause than the people themselves.
“I don’t care about the tanks, about the planes, about the guns,” he said. “The most precious asset we have in the military is our people, our soldiers, our civilians, everybody that actually helps us do all the things.
“That’s the thing that I’m bringing here to Northwest Georgia. When I’m running as a candidate for Congress, I tell everybody, ‘I work directly for you, your kids, and your grandkids.’ Bottom line is, I am a moderate Democrat but I am not tied to a party. My opponent cannot say that because he’s 100% tied to Donald Trump.”
