Carl defeats Hightower, Averhart wins over Gardner; eyes turn to November election
Flomaton poll worker Tommy Neal, right, stays COVID safe as voters cast ballots
It's on to November with Tommy Tuberville and Jerry Carl claiming their respective Republican nominations Tuesday and James Averhart clinching the Democratic nomination in runoff elections that were delayed from March 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unofficial results released from Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill's office show Tuberville with 333,890 votes (60.74 percent) to Jeff Sessions' 215,831 votes (39.26 percent) to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. Tuberville will now face Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Doug Jones in November.
In the runoff for the Republican nomination in the U.S. House of Representatives' First Congressional District, Jerry Carl defeated Bill Hightower 44,294 to 40,411 with Carl receiving 52.99 percent to Hightower's 47.71 percent.
Carl will now face Democrat James Averhart in November. Averhart defeated Kiani A. Gardner 15,764 to 12,019 in the Democratic runoff for the congressional seat.
Beth Kellum won the Republican nomination for Place 2 on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals with a 269,460 to 210,473 victory over Will Smith.
Statewide, 626,551 of Alabama's 3,608,572 registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday's runoffs for a voter turnout of 17.36 percent.
Escambia County had a voter turnout of 18.03 percent with 4,803 of the 26,635 registered voters casting ballots.
In the race for the U.S. Senate, Escambia County voters gave the nod to Tuberville with 64.86 percent of the vote, 2,503 to 1,356 over Sessions.
In the Democratic race for the U.S. House of Representatives, Escambia voters gave their support to Averhart with 472 votes to Gardner's 464.
Hightower carried Escambia County with 1,962 votes to Carl's 1,821 and Kellum received 1,997 votes to Smith's 1,395 votes.
