2026年2月13日 上午11:09 UTC / 路透社
佐治亚州道尔顿，2月13日（路透社） – 唐纳德·特朗普总统或许本以为，他对一位当地检察官的支持会在取代美国众议员玛乔丽·泰勒·格林的竞选中扫清共和党对手。然而，仍有超过十几名共和党人在角逐，使得佐治亚州这个极度保守的地区成为特朗普对其“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动掌控力的年度选举考验场。
2月4日，特朗普表示 Clay Fuller 将是 MAGA 的火炬手并给予支持后，这位曾在佐治亚州西北部四个县担任地方检察官的前官员成为了推定领先者。
然而，特朗普的背书并未阻止其他14名共和党候选人继续角逐3月10日的特别选举（周一将开始提前投票）。此外，还有三名民主党候选人及一名独立候选人参与竞争。
几位共和党候选人将自己塑造为特朗普右翼民粹主义的真正捍卫者，试图填补格林因1月与总统激烈分裂后辞职而留下的权力真空。
佐治亚州第14国会选区，从亚特兰大郊区延伸至田纳西州边境的蓝领走廊，自2020年格林以压倒性优势胜选并迅速成为该运动最直言不讳的全国性人物之一后，已成为 MAGA 堡垒。如今，随着格林退选，该选区选民正纠结于共和党未来走向以及谁能领导它。
对22名选民的采访显示，这场竞选仍充满变数。大多数共和党人表示尚未确定支持哪位候选人，特朗普的单一背书不会决定他们的投票。
“我是特朗普的支持者，尊重他的意见，但他不住在这个选区，”本周在肯尼索市参加候选人论坛的选民 John Burdette 表示，“我认为我们对谁最能代表我们有更好的判断。”
格林选区争夺 MAGA 旗手地位的斗争凸显了该运动在全国范围内的演变。尽管对特朗普的忠诚仍是核心特征，但对“MAGA”含义的共识正逐渐瓦解——如今这一标签涵盖了更多元的联盟。
这些新兴分歧对共和党在11月中期选举中维持国会控制权构成风险，可能为民主党在竞争激烈的选区利用共和党内部矛盾创造机会。
政治观察家称，由于共和党候选人分散选票，领先的民主党候选人 Shawn Harris 可能获得足够支持进入4月7日的决选（若无人获得多数票）。
2024年哈里斯以35.6%的得票率输给格林（64.4%），其表现将被关注，以观察民主党能否延续在特别选举中胜选的势头，尽管彻底获胜被视为极不可能。
空军退伍军人 Fuller 表示，他计划将重点放在阿巴拉契亚山麓延伸的贫困农村社区的经济发展上。他还誓言摒弃格林那种以阴谋论和网络攻击特朗普“敌人”为特征的好斗风格，这种风格曾使该选区备受关注。
“在需要的时候我也会使用强硬言辞，”他在竞选活动后告诉路透社，“但我有自己的立场。我认为选民不想再看到那种风格。”
“神、枪、特朗普”
不过，Fuller 有时也会用煽动性言论支持特朗普的议程。
1月24日——当天联邦移民局人员在明尼阿波利斯枪杀护士 Alex Pretti——他在 X 平台承诺，若当选将提名所有移民和海关执法局（ICE）特工获得总统自由勋章，并推动将该机构预算增加两倍。
但在多年支持总统的候选人中，没有人比 Colton Moore 更激进——这位极右翼前州参议员自称“特朗普的头号捍卫者”，竞选口号为“神、枪、特朗普”。
作为特朗普2020年选举被窃取论的长期支持者，Moore 多次与佐治亚州共和党领导层发生冲突。
81岁的共和党选民 Charles Stoker 表示，这种对抗性做法正是吸引渴望挑战建制派的基层保守派的关键。他指出，尽管获得特朗普背书，佐治亚州多名共和党人在2022年中期选举中失利。
“特朗普总统得到了糟糕的建议，”他表达了对 Fuller 获得支持的失望，“方向应该由民众自下而上决定。”
尽管未获特朗普背书，Moore 已获得前国家安全顾问 Michael Flynn、前佛罗里达州议员 Matt Gaetz 以及代表共和党极右翼的佐治亚州共和党大会（GRA）的支持。
GRA 主席 Nathaniel Darnell 对路透社表示：“特朗普总统几年后可能会卸任，我们需要确保有人真正为选区利益行事，我信任 Moore 而非 Fuller。”
候选人之间的主要分歧在于风格而非实质内容。一些人拥护定义特朗普主义的好斗风格，另一些人则呼吁政治回归更文明、注重共识的路线。
Meg Strickland （曾投票支持特朗普）是少数自称为温和派的候选人之一。她认为共和党应回归小政府传统，摒弃尖酸的个人政治，“我认为特朗普不是真正的保守派，希望我们能重回正轨。”
哈里斯的胜算渺茫，但或给共和党传递警告
以“回归常态”为竞选口号的 Strickland 承认，她在特朗普2024年以68%得票率拿下的选区中，获胜概率极低。
但她认为共和党误判了时机，指出选民对联邦移民局强硬手段的反弹以及她竞选活动中凸显的生活成本压力。
59岁的牧场主兼退休准将 Harris 将争取不满的共和党选民作为核心策略，承诺降低普通工人生活成本、扩大平价医疗可及性。
哈里斯拥有120万美元竞选资金，他称自己的立场与格林（自与特朗普决裂后转向帮助工薪阶层、遏制有毒政治和解决国债）的立场有重叠。
“玛乔丽·泰勒·格林已经回归到传统共和党人的立场，她的话术和我上次与她竞争时的主张一致，”哈里斯表示。
1月最后一周（特朗普背书前）由 Quantus Insights 对729名注册共和党人进行的民调显示，Moore 和 Fuller 分别以13.4%和12.6%领先，超三分之一受访者未决定支持谁。
北佐治亚大学政治学教授 Nathan Price 表示，这场竞选的不确定性反映了共和党和 MAGA 运动正处于转型期。
“随着特朗普任期进入第六年，或许政党开始超越他，思考未来的方向，”他说。
Jayla Whitfield-Anderson、Rich McKay 和 Nathan Layne 报道，Ross Colvin 和 Alistair Bell 编辑
MAGA vs MAGA: Georgia election exposes divisions in Trump’s base
February 13, 2026 11:09 AM UTC / Reuters
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.
After losing to Greene by 64.4%–35.6% in 2024, his performance will be watched to see if Democrats can sustain their recent streak of outperforming in special elections, though outright victory is seen as highly unlikely.
A U.S. Air Force veteran, Fuller said he aims to focus on bringing economic development to the district’s poorer rural communities stretching across the foothills of Appalachia. He also vowed to move past Greene’s combative style, marked by conspiracy-mongering and online attacks on Trump’s perceived enemies that drew scrutiny to the district.
“I’ve got the gear for fire and brimstone when the situation calls for it,” he told Reuters after a campaign event. “But I’m my own man. I don’t think the voters want that style again.”
‘GOD, GUNS, TRUMP’
Still, Fuller does sometimes use inflammatory rhetoric in support of Trump’s agenda.
On January 24 – the same day federal immigration officers shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis – he pledged in a post on X that, if elected, he would nominate all Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for the Presidential Medal of Freedom and push to triple the agency’s budget.
But no candidate in the race has been as fiery or aggressive in backing the president over the years as Colton Moore, a hard-right former state senator who calls himself “Trump’s #1 Defender” and is running under the slogan “GOD. GUNS. TRUMP.”
A longtime champion of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, Moore has repeatedly clashed with Georgia’s Republican leadership.
To Charles Stoker, an 81-year-old Republican voter, that confrontational approach is precisely what resonates with grassroots conservatives eager to challenge the establishment. He noted that a string of Georgia Republicans lost their races in the 2022 midterms despite being endorsed by Trump.
“President Trump has been getting bad advice,” he said, voicing disappointment with the Fuller endorsement. “Directions need to come from the people upward.”
Though he missed out on Trump’s endorsement, Moore has secured backing from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and the Georgia Republican Assembly, a group that represents the party’s far-right wing.
“President Trump’s going to be gone in a few years,” GRA President Nathaniel Darnell told Reuters, arguing that Moore, not Fuller, could be trusted to work in the district’s best interests.
The main differences between candidates are on style rather than substance. Some candidates have embraced the combative approach that defines Trumpism, while some have called for more civility and consensus-building in politics.
Meg Strickland, who voted for Trump, is one of the few self-described moderates in the race. She says the party should chart a new course that would see it return to its small-government roots and move away from caustic, personality-driven politics.
“I don’t think that Trump is a true conservative and I hope that we can get back there,” said the 39-year-old travel consultant and mother of three.
LONG ODDS FOR HARRIS, BUT COULD SEND REPUBLICANS A MESSAGE
Strickland, running on a “return to normal” message, acknowledges the steep odds she faces in a district Trump carried with 68% of the vote in 2024.
But she believes Republicans are misreading the moment, pointing to the voter backlash to aggressive tactics by federal immigration agents and the cost-of-living squeeze she says dominates her campaign stops.
Harris, a 59-year-old cattle farmer and retired brigadier general, has made courting disaffected Republican voters a central focus of his Democratic candidacy, aiming to win them over with a message centered on lowering costs for everyday workers and expanding access to affordable healthcare.
Harris, who has $1.2 million on hand to campaign, said he sees overlap between his positions and Greene’s since her break with Trump and shift in focus to helping working Americans, curbing toxic politics and tackling the national debt.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene is a Republican that has moved back into what the old Republicans were,” Harris said. “Her talking points are the same talking points that I had when I ran against her the last time.”
A Quantus Insights poll of 729 registered Republicans conducted in the last week of January, before Trump’s endorsement, pointed to a wide-open race, with Moore and Fuller at the top with 13.4% and 12.6% support, and more than a third of respondents undecided.
Nathan Price, a political science professor at the University of North Georgia, said the race’s fluidity reflects a Republican Party and a MAGA movement in transition.
“I think you’re starting to see perhaps the party looking beyond him a little bit as he gets into the sixth year and maybe starting to think about the future of the party,” he said.
Reporting by Jayla Whitfield-Anderson, Rich McKay and Nathan Layne, editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell
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