Wednesday, April 8, 2026

The election in MTG’s old Georgia district should scare Trump

While much of the world, let alone Washington, waited to see whether Donald Trump would carry out his pledge to make Iran’s civilization “die” before the president ultimately backed down from his threat, political observers noticed a different but no less earth-shattering storm brewing closer to home this week — one that could impact the Republicans’ hold on both houses of Congress.

Georgia and Wisconsin both held elections on Tuesday evening — while the world was digesting Trump’s latest threats to send Iran “back to the Stone Ages” — that showed that the swing states, both of which voted for him in 2016 and 2024, are trending leftward.

Down south, Republican Clay Fuller won the runoff race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old seat in Georgia’s 14th congressional district.

Trump endorsed Fuller and he inevitably will be much more of a loyalist than was Greene, who broke with the president over the Epstein files and other matters before her resignation.

But that does not tell the full story. In 2024, Greene won the district by 29 points and Trump won it by 37 points. By contrast, Fuller only beat Shawn Harris by about 11.8 percent, meaning that Democrats outperformed by 25 points.

As The Independent wrote last month during the primary, this district spans from the tip of Cobb County, which includes the suburbs of Atlanta, to the Tennessee border and the suburbs of Chattanooga.

Unsurprisingly, Harris did well in Cobb, winning it by 15 points. But in 2024, when Harris ran against Greene, he actually lost it by just 2.72 points, meaning that part of the county swung more than 17 points to the left on Tuesday.

Democrats had even better news up in Wisconsin. There, liberal candidate Chris Taylor won with 60 percent of the vote in the Supreme Court race.

And both Wisconsin and Georgia also displayed a trend that has manifested in off-year elections since Trump’s election: the leftward swing of Hispanic voters. 

Read more here. 

By Eric Garcia

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Daily briefing

US given ultimatum to ‘choose’ between ceasefire deal and ‘continued war via Israel’

Follow The Independent for up-to-the-minute coverage of the ceasefire in Iran. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The president has the moral high ground over the Iranian regime.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in response to President Donald Trump threatening to kill Iranian civilization. 

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