Kwanza Hall wins runoff to briefly fill seat of late Rep. John Lewis

ATLANTA — Former Atlanta City Council member Kwanza Hall won a special runoff election Tuesday for a brief term in Congress and will succeed the late civil rights legend John Lewis.

The final vote tally according to Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office:

Kwanza Hall: 12,094 votes, 54.01% of the vote

Robert M. Franklin: 10,300 votes, 45.99% of the vote

22,394 people voted in the election to see who would serve out the remainder of Lewis’s term, which will end in January when Nikema Williams will be sworn in for a full two-year term.

Final vote results in the State Senate District 39 runoff:

• Sonya Halpern (D): 4,404 votes, 80.85% of the vote
• Linda Pritchett (D): 1,043 votes, 19.15% of the vote

Final vote results in Western District DA runoff (Clarke/Oconee County):

• Deborah Gonzalez (D): 13,483 votes, 51.66% of the vote
• James Chafin (none): 12,617 votes, 48.34% of the vote

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

The 5th Congressional District includes most of the city of Atlanta, as well as some suburban areas of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties.

Lewis died at age 80 from pancreatic cancer in July after 34 years in Congress. He was the youngest and last survivor of the speakers at the 1963 March on Washington, when Lewis led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was best known for leading protesters in the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he was beaten by state troopers.

[RELATED: These are the 7 races that are in a runoff in Georgia]

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

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