Republican Clay Fuller supports the war in Iran. Democrat Shawn Harris opposes it. Voters in Marjorie Taylor Greene's former district in north-west Georgia decided that this distinction was not enough to propel a Democrat into a conservative-leaning House seat on Tuesday night.

But Fuller won with 56% of the vote, against Harris's 44%, according to the Associated Press, a result that comes after Greene secured the district by 28 points in 2024 and 32 points two years earlier. Democrats claim the swing to the left in the north-western corner of Georgia is a notable shift that's worth celebrating.

"I think it's a win in my mind," said Adrienne White Carden, a longtime Democratic political activist now running in a special election for the Georgia state senate in Gwinnett county. "It's not an actual win in terms of having a new, well-qualified representative in Georgia's 14th district … but it used to be unfathomable there for a Democrat to win … It's incredible gains."

Both men running to replace the former Trump ally turned critic, who resigned from Congress earlier this year, have considerable military credentials. Fuller is an air force reserve lieutenant colonel and military attorney. Harris is a retired brigadier general who has commanded combat troops in Afghanistan, Liberia and elsewhere, with his last active-duty assignment as a military attache in Israel.

On paper, the odds of a Harris win were slim. Georgia's 14th congressional district voted for Trump by a two-to-one margin in 2024, which is nearly the same margin Harris lost to Greene in 2024. In line with special elections for Congress since the start of Trump's term, the Democratic candidate overperformed. Harris improved on previous margins by about 25 points, one of the largest gains against Republicans in special elections for congress in this cycle. Harris said he will try again in November with a full congressional term on the table.

Trump's war, which he had threatened to escalate on Tuesday evening before agreeing to a two-week ceasefire, is unpopular, with most Americans opposing the conflict, which Harris hoped to capitalize on in the campaign.

"This war that we're in right now is a war of choice," Harris said in the sole debate between the two during the campaign. "The president was advised not to do it. He did it and now we're trying to figure out how are we going to get out of it … We should not put ground troops on the ground because this is not a war we should be in. We should be trying to pull back out of it."