Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Two Republicans with low-budget campaigns are in a congressional primary runoff Tuesday in Mississippi.

The winner advances to the November ballot to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The Republican runoff is between Thomas L. Carey, a retired real estate agent who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2014, and Brian Flowers, a military veteran who works at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station.

Thompson won a 1993 a special election and is the longest-serving member of Mississippi’s current congressional delegation. He's also the only Democrat and the only African American representing the state on Capitol Hill.

Neither Flowers nor Carey has filed a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission. Thompson has more than $1.4 million in his campaign fund.

The 2nd District stretches along the Mississippi River, through the Delta and into Jackson.

People who voted in a Democratic primary in the 2nd District in March are ineligible to vote in the Republican runoff.

The only other race in Mississippi on Tuesday is a nonpartisan special election to fill a vacant seat in the state House of Representatives. It is in parts of Jasper and Jones counties.

The candidates are Robin Robinson and Michael Walker. A third candidate, Jason Dykes, will appear on the ballot but has dropped out.

The winner will finish a term started by Republican Ramona Blackledge, a freshman lawmaker who stepped down because of a dispute about her ability to collect her state pension while serving in the House. The term ends in January 2024.