Forever chemicals loom over House race as Trump visits NW Georgia

Staring directly into the camera, Clay Fuller recalled a dark moment in his life.

“At the age of 31, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer,” Fuller said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

Fuller, one of several candidates in northwest Georgia vying to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the U.S. Congress, said doctors scraped cancerous tissue off his vocal cords during a 13-hour surgery. He was newly married with a 2-year-old daughter at the time.

He said he grew up in a small mill town in the area and blamed PFAS, a group of compounds also known as forever chemicals which regulators and scientists have linked to certain cancers, thyroid disease and other health risks.

“Now there are going to be a number of candidates out there on the campaign trail who are going to talk about this issue. But no one in this field has lived it. My wife has lived it. My family has lived it,” said Fuller.

Indeed, Fuller was just the latest candidate in the field to stake out a position on northwest Georgia’s PFAS contamination, a crisis that stems from decades of use of stain resistant products such as Scotchgard and Stainmaster by the region’s dominant industry: carpet.

PFAS has emerged a key issue for the closely watched March 10 special election race in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District that includes Rome and Dalton, which bills itself as the “Carpet Capital of the World.” Roughly a dozen hopefuls are jostling for the seat left vacant by Greene, who announced her resignation last November amid a deepening rift with President Donald Trump.

The president recently endorsed Fuller, a Republican and former district attorney, and Trump reaffirmed his support during a is visit to Rome on Thursday as he tried to leverage his influence and shape a race key to the Republican majority in U.S. Congress.

Public awareness around the PFAS crisis in northwest Georgia has intensified in the past month following an investigation by the AJC, The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that found carpet companies continued to use these products for years despite growing concerns about health risks associated with the chemicals.

The contamination from these forever chemicals has been talked about in town halls, direct-to-voter social media messages and televised candidate forums over the past several weeks as candidates try to position themselves as the ideal person to address the crisis. It’s become a bipartisan issue as major Republican and Democratic candidates alike have promised to hold corporations accountable and secure federal funding for cleanup.

Given the lack of a primary and a crowded field of Republicans in the conservative district, there is anxiety among local Republican leaders that Democratic candidate Shawn Harris, a military veteran who lost against Greene in 2024, could pull out an unlikely victory.

Harris has made PFAS a key issue in his campaign and said he’d push for congressional hearings on the issue, if elected.

“Investigations are good, and I want to bring actions and hold individuals or cities accountable,” Harris said in an interview. “This is a life and death issue; this is a generational issue.”

The carpet industry’s role in the crisis has become a flashpoint in Dalton as well as in communities down river from the carpet mills. For decades, PFAS within wastewater from the carpet industry was sent to the local utility, eventually ending up in the Conasauga River.

Today, scientists say the region is a PFAS hot spot and the chemicals have been found at high levels in the water, land and people. Dozens of lawsuits in northwest Georgia by residents, farmers and municipalities have been filed against carpet makers and chemical companies.

Northwest Georgia’s two largest carpet makers, Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries Inc., say their chemical suppliers assured them the chemicals were safe and that they ceased using them in U.S. carpet production in 2019. The companies did not respond before deadline to a request for comment for this story.

Many of the congressional candidates have taken aim at HB 211, a state bill proposed in the Georgia General Assembly that could protect carpet companies and others against PFAS lawsuits. Republican candidate Colton Moore, a former state lawmaker who has positioned himself as a staunch antiestablishment figure, has spoken out against the bill during several appearances over the past few weeks.

“Ultimately, folks need to be held accountable,” Moore said at a recent forum. “I would encourage you all first to make sure you contact your state legislators and ask that they don’t vote for HB 211.”

Angst over the bill has taken root in the community. On Monday, several local residents protested outside a restaurant owned by HB 211’s sponsor, Dalton Republican state Rep. Kasey Carpenter. Protesters held signs demanding the bill be pulled and blaming “Big Carpet” for the PFAS contamination.

At one point, Carpenter stopped by and spoke to the crowd, which criticized him.

“We’ve all drank this water. We’ve all bathed in this water. It’s everywhere,” one protester said, according to a video obtained by the AJC.

“It’s unsustainable to sue everybody,” Carpenter responded.

Local residents protest in Dalton, Georgia, against a bill in the Georgia General Assembly intended to provide legal protections for carpet companies and others facing PFAS lawsuits, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (Courtesy of Lisa Martin)

Carpenter told the AJC on Tuesday that the legislation has little chance of passing. He said, in many ways, he and the protesters agree that the federal government should intervene, and responsible companies should be held accountable. Their views diverge over whether the carpet industry should share blame along with the chemical makers, he said.

He added that the Republican congressional candidates criticizing the bill should defer to Trump, who has made it a priority to support American industry. Last year, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency intends to roll back drinking water limits on some PFAS and extended the deadline to comply to 2031.