More than 20 candidates qualify to run for northwest Georgia congressional seat

Wednesday, January 14, 2026 at 3:53 PM

Nearly two dozen people are hoping to become the next member of Congress to represent northwest Georgia. Voters in Georgia’s 14th District – which includes Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker and Whitfield counties and portions of Cobb County – will head to the polls starting on Monday, Feb. 16 when early voting […]

Voters line up at the Ben Robertson Community Center in Kennesaw in this file photo. Some Kennesaw voters will get a chance to cast a ballot for their next member of Congress in March. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Candidates who have qualified to run for Congress in Georgia’s 14th District

Star Black, Republican
Reagan Box. Republican
Beau Brown, Republican
James Marty Brown, Republican
Jared Craig, Republican
Eric Cunningham, Republican
Jim Davis, Democrat
Clayton Fuller, Republican
Tom Gray, Republican
Shawn Harris, Democrat
Larry Hilley, Republican
Jonathan Hobbs, Democrat
Christian Hurd, Republican
Trey Kelly, Republican
Nicky Lama, Republican
Colton Moore, Republican
Rob “Rush” Ruszkowski, Independent
Brian Stover, Republican
Meg Strickland, Republican
James Tully, Republican
Jenna Turnipseed, Republican
Andrew Underwood, Libertarian

Nearly two dozen people are hoping to become the next member of Congress to represent northwest Georgia.

Voters in Georgia’s 14th District – which includes Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Murray, Paulding, Polk, Walker and Whitfield counties and portions of Cobb County – will head to the polls starting on Monday, Feb. 16 when early voting kicks off.

The three-day candidate qualifying period ended Wednesday afternoon.

All of the candidates will appear on the same ballot regardless of party, and 17 Republicans, three Democrats, one Libertarian and one independent have qualified, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Election Day is set for March 10, and if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, which is likely with so many names on the ballot, a runoff between the top two candidates is scheduled for April 7.

The district is considered the most likely in the state to favor a Republican, according to the Cook Political Report. It was previously represented by firebrand conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene resigned earlier this month after publicly feuding with President Donald Trump over matters including health insurance subsidies, Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza and the release of the Epstein files.

The winner will only earn the right to serve out the rest of Greene’s term and will have to prepare immediately for a primary in May and a general election in November.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

More from GA News

Georgia shows the way in fix for pet overpopulation

Feb. 24 is World Spay Day and February is Spay and Neuter Awareness Month in Georgia. February is also Feline Fix by Five month, a reminder to have kittens fixed before they turn five months old. That focus on prevention is important for two reasons: First because fixing animals is the only way to fix […]
Georgia House passes stripped down ‘Mandi Ballinger Act,’ opting to instead study ‘raise the age’

The Georgia House on Friday passed a bill to create a special committee to study raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds, but stopped short of taking action to prevent 17-year-olds from being tried as adults. House Bill 1061, originally written to shift 17-year-olds away from the adult criminal justice system to […]
Republicans shoot down Democratic effort seeking to expand Medicaid in Georgia

Democrats attempted to pass Medicaid expansion on the floor of the Senate in a legislative maneuver that was quickly shot down by their Republican counterparts Friday. The bill they hoped to amend, Senate Bill 440, was originally intended to update and modernize laws around the state Department of Public Health. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Marietta […]
Georgia’s most prominent GOP woman lawmaker will retire, Trump shoutouts and more

The return of President Donald Trump to Georgia was the big political news this week, with the president visiting a Rome steel plant to promote his economic agenda and his allies as early voting got underway to replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. But it was also a big week for announced departures. House Speaker […]
Trump dismisses affordability woes, boosts allies at northwest Georgia steel plant

ROME, Ga. – In a freewheeling hour-long speech at a northwest Georgia steel plant, President Donald Trump sought to boost his second-term economic agenda ahead of November’s pivotal midterm elections. “We have the most people working in history, and just recently, we crossed two milestones,” he said Thursday. “They thought it was totally impossible when […]