Ga. Congressional election headed to runoff

The special election to fill the 9th Congressional District seat appears to be headed for a runoff.

With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Tom Graves of Ranger garnered 34.1 percent – below the 50 percent plus one vote majority he needed to avoid a runoff. Republican Lee Hawkins of Gainesville collected the second most votes, pulling in 23.7 percent of the ballots cast.

Graves and Hawkins now head to a June 8 runoff.

Eight candidates – six Republicans, a Democrat and an independent – qualified to replace Nathan Deal, a Republican who resigned from Congress in March to run for governor. Deal had held the seat since 1992.

In other action Tuesday, Democrat Jason Carter, President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, appeared to be headed for victory in state Senate District 42, pulling 65.1 percent of the vote. In state Senate District 49, Republican Butch Miller appeared to be victorious with 77.9 percent of the vote. In the race for state House District 12, Republican Rick Jasperse garnered 80.8 percent of the vote.