{"id":204310,"date":"2026-03-16T16:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/democratic-lead-in-georgia-special-election-signals-change-in-partys-fortunes-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:13:05","slug":"democratic-lead-in-georgia-special-election-signals-change-in-partys-fortunes-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/democratic-lead-in-georgia-special-election-signals-change-in-partys-fortunes-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic lead in Georgia special election signals change in party\u2019s fortunes – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s seat provides glimpse into midterms with Iran and immigration on voters\u2019 minds
Earlier this week, a steady trickle of voters casting ballots in Dalton at Georgia\u2019s City Hall offered a glimpse into what may be changing fortunes for Democrats in Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s former congressional district.
The district hasn\u2019t elected a Democrat since it was created after the 2010 Census<\/a>. But the party\u2019s candidate Shawn Harris drew the most votes district-wide \u2013 about 37% \u2013 on Tuesday and now faces Clay Fuller, a Trump-endorsed former prosecutor as his opponent in an April runoff election. The winner will finish Greene\u2019s term until November, when a whole new election will take place.
Dalton, is one of the district\u2019s largest cities and the seat of Whitfield county, where a handful of precincts showed double-digit increases in Democratic votes this week compared with the 2024 presidential election, according to an analysis<\/a> by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The special election also gave a glimpse into what was on voters\u2019 minds during a heated midterm election year in which Democrats are looking to take back control of Congress.
The war in Iran, and perhaps its tangible effect on most people in the US to date \u2013 climbing gas prices \u2013 was on the minds of many, but didn\u2019t appear to be swaying them from their core beliefs.
There were die-hard Maga voters, as might be expected in the deep-red district. There were also white voters who voted Democrat but were so concerned about what their neighbors or fellow churchgoers might say about their views that they preferred being quoted using only their first names. Then there were Latinos \u2013 who comprise about 55% of Dalton\u2019s population \u2013 both older ones who contributed to \u201cthe carpet capital of the world\u201d when they came to work in textile factories decades ago, and their children, born and raised in north-west Georgia<\/a>.
\u201cThe war doesn\u2019t affect me at all \u2013 it\u2019s a very short-term thing, something that needed to be done,\u201d said Yvonne Otts, 85. \u201cWe\u2019re putting America first for the first time,\u201d she said, adding that she supported a Republican candidate who she felt supported Trump.
At 61, Juan Escudero has lived in Dalton 23 years and became a US citizen in June. It was his first time voting. He voted for Nicky Lama, Dalton local GOP candidate. \u201cThe president is doing a good job,\u201d he said. \u201cEven though I\u2019m Latino, I support him \u2013 if you\u2019re a hard-working person, nothing bad will happen to you,\u201d he added, referring to the current administration\u2019s mass deportation push.
Luis Linares, a 24-year-old son of Salvadoran immigrants born in Dalton, also voted for Lama. He voted for Biden in 2020, but supported Trump in 2024. He saw the local GOP candidate as a continuation of Trump\u2019s policies. \u201cI feel like the US is stronger under Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like the war in Iran is to free their people.\u201d
Misty, who asked not to use her last name, said she wanted to elect \u201csomebody who would stand up to Trump\u201d. She voted for Harris.
The 47-year-old who has lived in Dalton her entire life said she was concerned about Trump \u201cstopping legal immigration. It\u2019s insane.\u201d She sees the war in Iran as \u201cupsetting \u2013 we didn\u2019t go to war for Iran; we did it for Israel\u201d. She also said she felt \u201coutnumbered\u201d holding such beliefs in north-west Georgia.
Larry and Debra, a couple in their 70s, said they were \u201cnot Trumpers\u201d and also didn\u2019t want their last name used. Larry said he \u201cdidn\u2019t care\u201d about the price of gas, and found it more worrying that \u201cTrump only cares about himself\u201d.
Hannah Fleming and Laura Bishop also supported Harris. \u201cOur government is \u2018Israel first\u2019 right now,\u201d Fleming said, referring to the war in Iran.
Nicolas P\u00e9rez, a 27-year-old 5th-grade teacher, voted for Harris, he said, \u201cbecause at least he showed up and listened to Latinos. Republican candidates haven\u2019t.\u201d As for the war in Iran, he said, \u201cHarris will provide some nuance, and not just be a rubber stamp.\u201d
Axel Morales, a 35-year-old with three jobs \u2013 including landscaping \u2013 said the \u201cprice of gas has affected me\u201d.
\u201cAs an immigrant,\u201d he said, \u201cwe helped build this city. Other candidates targeted immigrants. Shawn Harris didn\u2019t.\u201d
In the end, turnout this week was low, in many places more than 50% lower than in 2024, according to the AJC \u2013 so it\u2019s hard to know what to expect in the runoff. Still, in a swing state where former congresswoman Taylor Greene raged about putting America first and disentagling the country from foreign wars, Tuesday\u2019s voters, and the results, may offer clues about what to expect in November.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s seat provides glimpse into midterms with Iran and immigration on voters\u2019 mindsEarlier this week, a steady trickle of voters casting ballots in Dalton at Georgia\u2019s City Hall offered a glimpse into what may be changing fortunes for Democrats in Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s former congressional district.The district hasn\u2019t elected a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}