By Megan Bennett
State Representative candidates Horace Hudgins (R), former mayor of Ocilla, and Clay Pirkle (R) from Sycamore, are set to participate in a runoff election on Aug. 11 after neither candidate gained more than 50 percent of the vote at the special election held on Tuesday July 14. Scott Lowell Downing (R), and Sherry Miley (R) also ran for the District 155 seat.
Ben Hill, Coffee, Irwin, Tift and Turner county voters turned out for the special election held to fill the seat left vacant by former State Rep. Jay Roberts (R). Roberts resigned from his seat in the Georgia House of Representatives after Gov. Nathan Deal nominated him as planning director of the Georgia Department of Transportation.
District 155 includes portions of western Coffee County. Only voters from Broxton and Ambrose could vote in the special election. Hudgins claimed 81 Coffee County votes and Pirkle received 29. Over 3,700 votes were counted from all counties; Hudgins received 1,202 while 1,386 voters cast ballots for Pirkle.