diff --git a/pkg/raft/raft.go b/pkg/raft/raft.go
index 625a05318e28..94b636b56572 100644
--- a/pkg/raft/raft.go
+++ b/pkg/raft/raft.go
@@ -1080,6 +1080,16 @@ func (r *raft) tickHeartbeat() {
 			r.logger.Debugf("error occurred during checking sending heartbeat: %v", err)
 		}
 
+		// Mark fortifying followers as recently active. We disable heartbeats when
+		// leader fortification is enabled, instead deferring to StoreLiveness for
+		// failure detection. As such, if there is no append activity for a raft
+		// group, it's possible for the leader to not communicate with a follower in
+		// a electionTimeout. We do not want to infer that the leader can't
+		// communicate with a follower in such cases, which could then cause the
+		// leader to spuriously step down because of CheckQuorum. Instead, we
+		// compute RecentlyActive based on StoreLiveness instead.
+		r.markFortifyingFollowersAsRecentlyActive()
+
 		// Try to refortify any followers that don't currently support us.
 		r.bcastFortify()
 		// TODO(ibrahim): add/call maybeUnpauseAndBcastAppend() here.
@@ -2478,6 +2488,24 @@ func (r *raft) testingStepDown() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// markFortifyingFollowersAsRecentlyActive iterates over all the followers, and
+// mark them as recently active if they are supporting the leader.
+func (r *raft) markFortifyingFollowersAsRecentlyActive() {
+	if !r.fortificationTracker.FortificationEnabled() {
+		return
+	}
+
+	r.trk.Visit(func(id pb.PeerID, pr *tracker.Progress) {
+		if pr.RecentActive {
+			return // return early as it's already marked as recently active
+		}
+
+		if isFortified, _ := r.fortificationTracker.IsFortifiedBy(id); isFortified {
+			pr.RecentActive = true
+		}
+	})
+}
+
 // advanceCommitViaMsgAppOnly returns true if the commit index is advanced on
 // the followers using MsgApp only. This means that heartbeats are not used to
 // advance the commit index. This function returns true only if all followers
diff --git a/pkg/raft/testdata/fortification_checkquorum.txt b/pkg/raft/testdata/fortification_checkquorum.txt
index 69dd42375af5..9b76f6f14df1 100644
--- a/pkg/raft/testdata/fortification_checkquorum.txt
+++ b/pkg/raft/testdata/fortification_checkquorum.txt
@@ -37,9 +37,24 @@ tick-election 1
 ----
 ok
 
+print-fortification-state 1
+----
+1 : 1
+2 : 1
+3 : 1
+
+# Even if we haven't received any messages from the follower since last tick,
+# we are still okay because the follower is fortifying us which means that it's
+# active.
 tick-election 1
 ----
-DEBUG 1 has not received messages from a quorum of peers in the last election timeout
+ok
+
+status 1
+----
+1: StateReplicate match=11 next=12 sentCommit=10 matchCommit=10
+2: StateReplicate match=11 next=12 sentCommit=11 matchCommit=11
+3: StateReplicate match=11 next=12 sentCommit=11 matchCommit=11
 
 # Now, withdraw the StoreLiveness support for the leader's fortified epoch by
 # bumping it. This also shows that we won't break our LeadSupportUntil promise
@@ -52,6 +67,10 @@ bump-epoch 1
 2 2 1 1
 3 2 1 1
 
+tick-election 1
+----
+DEBUG 1 does not have store liveness support from a quorum of peers
+
 tick-election 1
 ----
 DEBUG 1 has not received messages from a quorum of peers in the last election timeout
diff --git a/pkg/raft/tracker/progress.go b/pkg/raft/tracker/progress.go
index c011562f7d08..c3b0caf90c97 100644
--- a/pkg/raft/tracker/progress.go
+++ b/pkg/raft/tracker/progress.go
@@ -101,8 +101,10 @@ type Progress struct {
 	// case the follower does not erroneously remain in StateSnapshot.
 	PendingSnapshot uint64
 
-	// RecentActive is true if the progress is recently active. Receiving any messages
-	// from the corresponding follower indicates the progress is active.
+	// RecentActive is true if the progress is recently active. Receiving any
+	// messages from the corresponding follower indicates the progress is active.
+	// Also, it's set to true on every heartbeat timeout if the follower is
+	// fortifying the leader.
 	// RecentActive can be reset to false after an election timeout.
 	// This is always true on the leader.
 	RecentActive bool