WASHINGTON _ The Republican primary for Mississippi's 3rd District is heading to a runoff after no candidate cleared more than 50 percent of the vote Tuesday night. Incumbent GOP Rep. Gregg Harper is retiring after five terms in Congress.
With 90 percent of precincts reporting, District Attorney Michael Patrick Guest had 46 percent of the vote to 21 percent for Whit Hughes, the chief development officer of Baptist Health Systems, according to The Associated Press.
As the district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties, Guest's current territory overlaps with the 3rd District, which stretches across the central part of the state from the Louisiana to Alabama borders. He had support from Harper as well as financial backing from a few other conservative House members from other states.
A former Mississippi State University basketball star, Hughes was finance chairman for former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour's 2003 campaign and is a past deputy director of the Mississippi Development Authority.
Guest ended the pre-primary reporting period with $61,000 to Hughes' $67,000.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Republican, which means either Guest or Hughes is likely heading to Congress next year.
Half of the six Republicans running for the 3rd District were women. They finished in the bottom three spots. Despite now having an appointed female senator in Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi has still never elected a woman to federal office.
