Mississippi special election headed to runoff

Voters in Mississippi’s 1st district will apparently have to endure a fourth congressional election in just over two months after neither Southaven Mayor Greg Davis (R) nor Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers (D) received 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special election, sending the race to a runoff.

{mosads}A six-candidate field that included two third-party candidates and two major party candidates, who lost to Davis and Childers earlier this month, diluted the vote just enough to cause a runoff.

With 99 percent of precincts in, Davis was second with 47 percent after late votes from Childers’s home county ate enough of what had been Davis’s majority early in the night and gave Childers 49 percent, just shy of a majority. The Associated Press called the race before all votes are counted, saying that a runoff would be necessary. 

Former Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough (R) and state Rep. Steve Holland (D) lost general election primary runoffs three weeks ago and could not remove themselves from the ballot, but they did not actively campaign. Each took about 1 percent of the vote, as did the two third-party candidates.

The winner of the May 13 runoff will serve the remainder of the term in appointed Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) former House seat.

Davis and Childers will also face each other again in November for a full-term.