Clerks: Mixed turnout for US House runoff in Mississippi

Poll worker Queenie Barnes directs voters to the polls at the Oxford Conference Center during a special election for Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, June 2, 2015. Democrat Walter Zinn Jr. and Republican Trent Kelly are vying for the seat previously held by Alan Nunnelee, who died in February 2015. (Bruce Newman/Oxford Eagle via AP) NO SALES Poll worker Queenie Barnes directs voters to the polls at the Oxford Conference Center during a special election for Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, June 2, 2015. Democrat Walter Zinn Jr. and Republican Trent Kelly are vying for the seat previously held by Alan Nunnelee, who died in February 2015. (Bruce Newman/Oxford Eagle via AP) NO SALES

By Associated Press June 2, 2015 4 min read

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Turnout for Tuesday’s special election runoff to fill a vacant congressional seat in north Mississippi was sparse in some areas, but strong in the county that is home to the longshot Democratic candidate.

Republican Trent Kelly and Democrat Walter Zinn are vying to serve most of a two-year term started by Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee, who was 56 when he died of brain cancer in February.

Kelly is favored in the 1st District, a seat held by Republicans for most of the past 20 years. If Zinn somehow were to score an upset, however, he would be only the second African-American congressman in Mississippi since Reconstruction.

The district includes all of or part of 22 counties, stretching from the Tennessee line down to Winston County in central Mississippi. Before the seat became controlled by Republicans, it was held for 53 years by Democrat Jamie Whitten, who worked his way up to the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee and brought millions of federal dollars to one of the poorest states in the nation.

Zinn and Kelly advanced to the runoff from a field of 13 candidates in the first round of voting May 12.