XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans   
   From: super70s@super70s.invalid   
      
   MAGA vs MAGA: Georgia election exposes divisions in Trump's base   
   By Jayla Whitfield-Anderson, Rich McKay and Nathan Layne   
   Reuters   
   Fri, February 13, 2026 at 5:08 AM CST   
      
   DALTON, Georgia, Feb 13 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump may have   
   expected his endorsement of a local prosecutor in the race to replace   
   U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to clear the Republican   
   field. Instead, more than a dozen Republicans are still competing,   
   turning this deeply conservative corner of Georgia into an   
   election-year test of Trump's hold on his Make America Great Again   
   movement.   
      
   Clay Fuller, the former district attorney for four counties in   
   northwest Georgia, became the presumptive frontrunner after Trump threw   
   his support behind him on February 4, describing him as a torchbearer   
   of MAGA.   
      
   Trump's endorsement, however, has not deterred 14 other Republican   
   candidates from pressing ahead in the March 10 special election, with   
   early voting to start on Monday. Three Democratic candidates and one   
   independent are also competing.   
      
   Several of the Republican candidates are casting themselves as the true   
   champions of Trump's right-wing populism, vying to fill the vacuum left   
   by Greene, who resigned her congressional seat in January after a   
   bitter split with the president.   
      
   Georgia's 14th Congressional District, a mostly blue-collar corridor   
   from Atlanta's exurbs up to the Tennessee border, has established   
   itself as a MAGA stronghold since Greene swept to victory in 2020 and   
   quickly became one of the movement's most outspoken national figures.   
   Now, with Greene stepping aside, the district's voters are grappling   
   with what comes next for the party and who should lead it.   
      
   Interviews with 22 voters suggest the race remains fluid. Most   
   Republicans said they had not settled on a candidate and that Trump's   
   endorsement alone won't decide their vote.   
      
   "I'm a Trump supporter, and I respect his opinion, but he doesn't live   
   in this district," said John Burdette, a voter who attended a candidate   
   forum this week in the city of Kennesaw. "I think we have a better   
   perspective on who is best to represent us."   
      
   The fight to claim the mantle of MAGA standard-bearer in Greene's   
   district highlights how the movement nationally is evolving. While   
   fealty to Trump is still the distinct denominator, there is   
   increasingly less agreement on what it means to be "MAGA", a label that   
   now covers a far more diverse coalition.   
      
   These emerging divisions pose a risk for Republicans' control of   
   Congress in November's midterm elections, creating potential openings   
   for Democrats to take advantage of any infighting in competitive   
   districts.   
      
   With Republicans splitting votes, political observers say the leading   
   Democratic candidate, Shawn Harris, could gain enough support to make a   
   runoff, set for April 7 if no candidate secures a majority.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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