Georgia voters head back to the polls to settle runoffs for Congress and a trio of legislative seats

Voters in northwest Georgia will head to the polls Tuesday to settle a nationally watched congressional runoff between a Trump-backed Republican and a Democrat who has pitched himself as a moderate alternative in the deep-red district.  The winner will finish former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term. Some of those voters will also choose the winner […]

Voters in northwest Georgia will head to the polls Tuesday to settle a nationally watched congressional runoff between a Trump-backed Republican and a Democrat who has pitched himself as a moderate alternative in the deep-red district. 

The winner will finish former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term.

Some of those voters will also choose the winner of a legislative runoff to replace former Trenton Republican Sen. Colton Moore, who stepped down in January for an unsuccessful bid to replace Greene. 

There are also two other legislative runoffs on the ballot today as voters in Richmond, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties new state representatives. 

Harris, Fuller compete to fill Greene’s seat

Shawn Harris, who is a farmer and retired brigadier general, was the top vote-getter in last month’s election featuring a crowded field of candidates. Harris walked away with about 37% of the vote. 

But now Harris is in a head-to-head match up with the top Republican in the race, Clay Fuller, the former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. Fuller received 35% of the vote last month. 

The race is being closely watched for clues about voter sentiment going into the high-stakes midterms this fall. Political experts say the election will all come down to voter turnout, and they caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from the results of a low-turnout runoff. 

“Because this runoff is happening at an unusual time with less media attention, turnout is likely to be low — and that creates more room for unexpected outcomes,” said Zachary F. Peskowitz, a political science professor at Emory University. 

“I would be very cautious about reading too much into the results of a low-turnout runoff when trying to predict what will happen in November 2026,” Peskowitz also said. 

Greene, once among President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, announced her resignation late last year after publicly feuding with the president over issues including his handling of the files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Three legislative runoffs

Three special elections to decide who will fill vacancies in the Georgia Legislature will also be decided Tuesday. 

The winners will likely not cast a vote on legislation this year, although there is now talk of a potential special session after lawmakers failed during the just-ended session to address a looming deadline to remove QR codes from Georgia’s ballots. But either way, the victors will have an advantage going into this year’s regularly scheduled elections, when all lawmakers will be on the ballot.

Here are the matchups: 

Republican Lanny Thomas and Democrat Jack Zibluk will face each other for Senate District 53, which spans Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade and Walker counties and part of Floyd County. 

Thomas, a former mayor of Trion, faced a health crisis shortly after advancing to the runoff but said in an update on social media this weekend that he’s back home and working to get out the vote. 

“This election cycle has been a little different, but the work doesn’t stop,” he wrote. 

Thomas clinched nearly 39% of the vote last month in a four-way race. Zibluk, a professor of communication, came in second with 27%. 

In House District 94, which includes portions of Gwinnett and DeKalb counties, two Democrats are in Tuesday’s runoff. 

Venola Mason, a DeKalb County education consultant, came in first last month with about 44% of the vote. She is facing former Snellville Mayor Kelly Kautz in the runoff. 

The election is being held to replace former Stone Mountain Democratic state Rep. Karen Bennett, who resigned in early January shortly before pleading guilty to pandemic-era unemployment fraud.

And in House District 130, a former state lawmaker is hoping to return to the Gold Dome after taking a hiatus to care for her mother, but she will first have to fend off a GOP candidate in the Richmond County-based district. 

Former state Rep. Sheila Clark Nelson, who is a Democrat, won 33% of the vote in last month’s six-way race and now faces Thomas D. McAdams, a minister and a Republican who made it to the runoff with 20% of the vote. The winner will replace former Augusta Democratic Rep. Rep. Lynn Heffner, who stepped down in early January. 

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