Voters across the county will again head to the polls on Tuesday to decide two U.S. Capitol Hill runoff races.
Voters in Newton County will be voting in the U.S. District 3 Republican runoff between Madison and Ranking County District Attorney Michael Guest and Baptist Health Systems Foundation President and Chief Development Officer Whit Hughes. Guest and Hughes were the top vote getters across the district in the June 5 primary with Guest finishing with 28,720 votes (44.84 percent) and Hughes with 14,250 votes (22.25 percent).
The winner will move on to face Democrat state Rep. Michael T. Evans (District 45) in November to fill the seat that is being vacated by Gregg Harper who chose not to seek re-election. The winner of Tuesday’s primary is expected to be a heavy favorite in the mostly Republican district.
Voters will also be voting in the U.S. Senate Democratic runoff between state Rep. David Baria (District 122) and Meridian businessman Howard Sherman.
In the June 5 primary, Sherman just edged past Baria with 27,358 votes (31.92 percent) to 26,568 votes (31 percent) with state Rep. Omeria Scott finishing with 20,642 votes (24.08 percent).
Baria has the support of most of the Democratic state party leadership, including U.S. District 2 Congressman Bennie Thompson, but Scott recently endorsed Sherman.
Newton County Circuit Clerk Mike Butler said his office will be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 23 for absentee voting.
Newton Run-off election
The City of Newton will have a run-off election for its Ward 4 vacancy from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Senior Citizens Building.
Ramonica Evans was leading with 35 votes while David Carr came in second with 22 votes. Evans failed to garner a majority of the votes to get win the election out right.
Both are vying to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ray Payne on April 17. He was killed in a car wreck.
