Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon launched a primary challenge on Tuesday against Republican U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus who has sometimes broken ranks with his own party.
Couvillon entered the 2026 race with an announcement that emphasized his conservative record as the top elected official in Gainesville and his results-driven approach. It made no mention of Clyde, the third-term incumbent.
“While most politicians are more concerned with making a point than getting things done,” Couvillon said, “I’ll be ready on Day One to support President Trump’s agenda, secure our southern border, tackle inflation and the rising cost of living, and stand with our farmers and small businesses.”
A veteran insurance executive, Couvillon was first elected to the Gainesville City Council in 2013 and won the mayor’s race in 2022. He’s expected to frame himself as a MAGA loyalist also willing to back Republican-led proposals that Clyde sometimes opposed.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Clyde has easily swept aside Democratic opposition in the deep-red district, which Trump carried with roughly two-thirds of the vote. But he hasn’t faced a formidable Republican challenger since his 2020 election.
The longtime owner of an Athens gun store, Clyde won his party’s nomination over eight rivals in that race with a pledge to expand Second Amendment rights and rein in federal spending.
Since his victory, Clyde has aligned himself firmly with Trump and was an early supporter of his comeback bid. He has also largely backed GOP-led initiatives in the House.
But he has frustrated more mainstream Republicans by voting to block or delay legislation, particularly spending and debt ceiling measures, that he views as an unnecessary expansion of government or, as he framed one budget plan he rejected last year, as a manifestation of the “swamp’s status quo.”
And in December, Clyde was one of one of a few dozen Republicans who voted against a Trump-backed plan to combine government funding with an increase of the debt limit. That measure provided $100 billion in emergency aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers ravaged by Hurricane Helene and other disasters.
He has not been afraid to joust with party leaders. Clyde was among the far-right Republicans who tussled with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and earlier this month was the only member of Georgia’s delegation who hesitated to support Speaker Mike Johnson, who relied on the GOP’s razor-thin majority to win the gavel. Clyde ultimately backed him after initially not voting for anyone.
He’s also made waves for stances. He waged an attention-grabbing fight with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing to pass through metal detectors installed outside every entrance to the chamber’s gallery following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
And he downplayed the pro-Trump mob that ransacked the Capitol four years ago, saying it appeared to him to be like a “normal tourist visit” before acknowledging there “were some rioters.”
Couvillon’s campaign is the second formidable challenge to a U.S. House member in Georgia in the opening weeks of 2025. Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones filed paperwork last week to run against U.S. Rep. David Scott regardless of whether the incumbent decides to seek a 13th term next year.
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