How they fared
Chuck Payne: 1,792 (36.1%)Debby Peppers: 1,361 (27.4%)William Vinyard: 856 (17.2%)Shell Underwood: 536 (10.8%)Conda Lowery Goodson: 419 (8.4%)* All candidates ran as Republicans, except Peppers. She ran as an Independent.
Voter turnout
Registered voters: 75,236Votes cast: 4,964 (6.6%)* Source: Georgia Secretary of State
Some North Georgia residents won't have representation in the state senate when the session begins next month.
A special election to replace state Sen. Charlie Bethel, R-Dalton, ended without a winner on Tuesday night. The leading candidate, Chuck Payne, failed to receive more than half of the support in a five-person race. And as a result, he will face the second place finisher, Debby Peppers, in a runoff on Jan. 10.
That race will unfold one day after the other state senators report to work, meaning the winner will have to play catch up next month.
The seat covers District 54, which runs through all of Whitfield and Murray counties. It also covers some of northern Gordon County and western Pickens County.
In a race in which 6.6 percent of registered voters turned out, 431 ballots separated Payne and Peppers. Payne did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday. But Peppers and Shell Underwood, who finished in fourth place, believe cold and rainy weather kept potential voters home.
"We're in a good position," Peppers said. "We'll just see what happens. I didn't want to drag [the race] out over Christmas, but it is what it is. My base is pretty loyal and pretty proactive. And I expect them to come back out again."
Peppers was the only candidate to run as an Independent in this election, with the four other candidates all registering as Republicans. During a candidate forum Nov. 30, when the four other candidates said they wanted to increase sales tax and decrease property taxes, Peppers criticized the plan. She argued that would disproportionately affect poor people.
She is also the only candidate who does not outright oppose abortion in most cases. She said banning the procedure in Georgia would lead to a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court, costing taxpayers money.
This is in an area that is strongly conservative, where about 78 percent of voters supported Donald Trump in the presidential race last month.
Peppers, a Whitfield County commissioner in the 1990s, rejected the label of Democrat after Tuesday's result.
"People know me," she said. "And they trust me and think that I'm a qualified candidate. That's one of the reasons why I didn't want to put a letter next to my name. If people talk to me and I can discuss issues with them rather than discuss party affiliations, I can win over people."
Payne entered Tuesday's race as the most deeply connected Republican. He has been a member of the local party since the early 1990s and twice served as its chairman. Most recently, he stepped down from the post to volunteer for the presidential campaign of Dr. Ben Carson.
He is also a retired Murray County Juvenile Court probation officer, giving him access to the criminal justice system. He believes he can be a smart voice on issues related to crime and courts in the state senate.
"I am humbled by the support," Payne wrote on his Facebook page after seeing the results. "You all were the difference! Now we have work to do leading up to the January 10th runoff. Onward!"
Payne defeated Peppers in all four counties Tuesday. And with three other Republicans dropping out, he has a good shot of picking up extra support over the next month.
Still, none of the other three candidates knew whether they would back either Payne or Peppers before the Jan. 10 race, though Underwood added she couldn't support Peppers because she isn't a Republican.
A former teacher, Underwood said both candidates need to fight for the attention of the school systems.
"It's really important that the teachers look at how the two candidates are going to help education," she said. "Educators are on the chopping block. And if educators are stressed out, it affects the students. And if the students are stressed out, it affects the community as a whole."
Candidates William Vinyard and Lowery Goodson both thanked their supporters after the results came in Tuesday.
Bethel vacated his seat one day after an unopposed race in the general election last month, when Gov. Nathan Deal appointed him to a spot on the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.