03/11/26

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A handful of special and primary elections in Georgia, Mississippi and New Hampshire on Tuesday underscored Democrats’ overperformance streak as well as the enduring strength of President Trump’s endorsement as midterm season ramps up.

Democrats flipped a Republican-held state House seat in New Hampshire, while the party’s candidate placed first in the special election runoff to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in northwest Georgia. 

Still, Trump’s preferred pick, Republican Clay Fuller, comfortably beat another GOP rival, former state Sen. Colton Moore (R), for a spot in the Georgia runoff — even as the state’s GOP has shown a mixed track record in its support for the president’s endorsees.

And, while Democrats have been mired in a debate over age and generational change on Capitol Hill, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who is 78, easily defeated his younger challenger in Tuesday’s Mississippi primary.

Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday’s elections:

Democrats pull off strong showing in New Hampshire, Georgia

Democrats had a good night in New Hampshire and Georgia, where the party saw strong turnout and enthusiasm.

In the Granite State, Democrat Bobbi Boudman defeated Republican Dale Fincher for the GOP-leaning Carroll County House District 7, which the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) noted voted for Trump in the past two presidential cycles.  

“These wins aren’t a flash in a pan – together, they tell an undeniable story of Democratic momentum as voters reject Republicans and blame them for soaring costs,” DLCC President Heather Williams said in a statement lauding the win.  

“The DLCC isn’t taking our foot off the gas as we gear up for a historic November. This is the year to transform power in state legislatures – we’re only just getting started,” she added. 

While Republicans still hold a comfortable majority in the New Hampshire House, the flip was notable given that Boudman ran for the seat in 2024 and lost by about 14 points.  

“The Democrats won a special up here last night that they shouldn’t have won,” New Hampshire GOP strategist Jim Merrill told The Hill. “Specials are funky, but nonetheless, that should’ve been a Republican hold, not a Democratic pickup.” 

Tuesday’s victory fortifies the party’s confidence as it has picked up several statehouse seats in the past few weeks, including in other red states like Texas and Arkansas.

In Georgia, Democrat Shawn Harris placed first in the runoff to replace Greene in Congress, receiving 37 percent of the vote with at least 95 percent of the vote recorded, according to Decision Desk HQ.  Fuller placed second with 35 percent of the vote.  

Democrats were largely aided by the fact that Republicans saw a split field, with a dozen GOP candidates running for Greene’s seat, and Democrats largely consolidated around Harris’ candidacy. 

Democrats are unlikely to flip the northwest Georgia seat — it went for Trump in 2024 by close to 37 points. But Harris’s first-place finish will likely offer the party an extra jolt of enthusiasm, as the party makes strides in GOP-leaning districts in a midterm season that is shaping up to mimic the momentum of the 2018 midterm cycle.

Thompson victory bucks party’s push for younger leadership

Thompson easily defeated 34-year-old antitrust lawyer Evan Turnage, who sought to join a wave of Democrats looking to oust older lawmakers in Congress.

Turnage served as chief counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), making him at one point the top lawyer in the upper chamber. He ran on a message of economic populism, focusing on holding corporations accountable, addressing the high cost of living and expanding voting rights. 

But Thompson — who has represented Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District for more than three decades — came out on top, winning 86 percent of his district’s vote on Tuesday, compared to Turnage’s roughly 13 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ. 

On the campaign trail, Turnage pushed for generational change. He turned to the same ad firm that helped propel 34-year-old New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) campaign, rebuking Thompson for failing to remedy poor economic conditions in the Black-majority Democratic stronghold. 

“The district still remains the poorest district in the poorest state,” Turnage said in the ad earlier this year.  

“We can’t keep sending in the same politicians in Washington who are getting richer every year while our communities fade away, the same old playbook from the ’90s has failed us, and it’s time to try something different,” he continued. 

Younger progressive challengers have also come up short in other contests this spring, including 32-year-old Nida Allam, a Durham County commissioner, who failed to unseat Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), 69, in a North Carolina primary last week.

Fuller win underscores power of Trump’s support

Fuller handily beat Moore, a conservative hard-liner who’s rankled his party, for a spot in the runoff for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District — underscoring the strength of the president’s endorsement.

Fuller, the district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, is expected to win the April 7 runoff against Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle producer, given the district’s reliably red leanings.  

But the local district attorney’s win is also a victory for Trump. Georgia Republicans haven’t always consolidated behind the president’s endorsements in key GOP contests. 

Trump’s preferred Senate GOP pick — former football player Herschel Walker — won his primary to run against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in 2022. But Republicans rejected the president’s picks challenging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), state Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and state Attorney General Chris Carr (R) that same year, underscoring Georgia Republicans’ comfort with bucking Trump at times.

Trump’s endorsement track record this cycle has been proven successful, with most of the president’s picks winning GOP primaries outright or advancing to runoff contests.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5778508-georgia-new-hampshire-mississippi-elections-takeaways