CD14, And all other special elections head to runoffs

Runoffs are stupid.

Now that I have that out of my system… aww who am I kidding, so long as we have runoffs that will never be out of my system.

We are certain that the media will fall all over itself to tell you that in the race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in CD14 that Democrat, Shawn Harris, was the top vote getter with less than 40% of the vote. It makes for click-baity headlines that will drive web traffic in a district that gave 68% of their vote to President Trump in 2024 and 64.4% to MTG herself.

But special elections are weird and turnout is almost always small enough to fit into a few pews of your local mega church. And when special elections go to runoffs, the turnout almost always drops to even more ridiculously small numbers. So reading too much into them is an easy thing to do.

There were four special elections today and all four of them will go to runoffs.

The forementioned Harris will square off against Clay Fuller, the top Republican finisher in CD 14, with just shy of 35% of the vote. This is actually a remarkable number all things considered, especially since there were 755* other Republicans in the race.

This means that the Colton Moore Clown Show™ has gone dark, or at least the elected version. And for that, all of America owes Clay Fuller and Donald Trump our collective gratitude. We are sure Moore will be out there, “RINO” Hunting, juggling while riding a unicycle, and auctioning off your piece of the American Dream in no time. But for now, and for the next couple of years, we don’t have to worry about that circus setting up in an elected office anytime soon after he finished a very distant 3rd place at just over 11%.

Queue video of the two Scottish guys trying to get the voice activated elevator to go to floor eleven. Just Google it and thank me later.

I guess it is safe to say that Moore’s Congressional campaign was a flop.

It will be interesting to see if Moore will endorse Fuller in the runoff against the Democrat even though he is on the May primary ballot. You would think getting tripled up in this election would disabuse the man-child of his delusions of grandeur, but I predict that being a team player just ain’t his style. This is problematic for Republicans looking to keep the majority in the US House though as any number of weird things can happen if Moore throws one of his legendary tantrums and calls on his loyal supporters to sit the runoff out. Peach Pundit Readers may remember that CD14’s depressed runoff turnout in a previous election caused two Democrats to get elected to the United States Senate.

Also, weirdly, John Cowan, who is running for Congress in the 11th District voted in the 14th Congressional today. Because, you know… that’s where he actually lives. Cowan had previously ran for CD14 and lost to MTG and decided to skip the race to represent his own district in favor of the 11th District. It must be kinda weird to run for an office that you cannot even vote for yourself. There will be a whole bunch of comments coming from this site about that in the coming weeks, I assure you.

In the race to replace Moore in the Senate (SD53) Republican Lanny Thomas finished with the plurality at 38.46% to the Democrat Jack Zibluk who came in second with 27.44%.

House District 94 was also on the ballot for voters there after the incumbent, State Representative Karen Bennett, resigned after being charged with unemployment fraud. The top two finishers in that race are both Democrats. But in first place was Venola Mason, who got 49.33!%… ouch. Getting that close and still having to go to a runoff is gonna sting… ask me how I know. As I write this, it looks like Mason will face Ikenna Ugwumadu, who edged out the third place finisher by a whopping four whole votes.

As they say… every vote counts.

House District 130 opened up because State Rep Lynn Heffner was worried that she no longer lived in her district because her home had been destroyed by a hurricane and she was struggling to get it rebuilt. Seems like they’d be able to work something like that out as I can think of at least one long time member I used to serve with who practically lived in his “vacation home.” But alas… she gone.

In the race to replace Heffner, Democrat Sheila Nelson appears to have earned 33.49% of the vote with… wait… checks notes… Republican Thomas McAdams coming in second to secure his spot in the runoff by a skinny 7 votes and 20.08%. Wowsers.

Of course all of these low turnout affairs will be paid for by local property tax dollars and will mean that even fewer voters will choose the ultimate winner. Not to mention that Sine Die is on April 2nd so these seats will have been unrepresented the entirety of the 2026 legislative session. If only there was a better way.

*Not really, it just felt that way and I wanted to drop a Hank Aaron reference.