Trent Kelley wins First District Congressional runoff

Republican Trent Kelly coasted to an easy victory in Tuesday’s run-off race for the First Congressional District seat left vacant when Congressman Alan Nunnelee died in February.

Unofficial results in from all 426 precincts in the district showed Kelly with 68,652 votes (70%)  and 29,402 votes (30%) for Walter Zinn, Jr., a Democrat.

Kelly and Zinn were the survivors of 13 candidates who stood in the initial vote on May 12th. Although the race was non-partisan, meaning candidates did not have to declare party affiliation, Kelly and 11 other candidates declared themselves Republicans and Zinn was the only self-described Democrat in the race.

Congressman-elect Trent Kelly as he campaigned in New Albany the day before the election.

Zinn was the top vote-getter in the initial election with 15,135 votes (17%); Kelly got 14,239 votes (16%). Zinn, of course, benefited from having the Republican votes split 12 ways in the original vote. Zinn, an attorney and political consultant from Pontotoc is black. Had he won, he would have been only the third black congressman from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era after the American Civil War.

Kelly, who lives in Saltillo, is in the fourth year of his first term as District Attorney of Mississippi’s First Circuit Court District.

Results in Union County showed Kelly winning by a larger margin than he did district wide. Kelly took 3,658 votes (82%) in Union County compared to 806 votes (18%) for Zinn.

Unofficial results in Union County’s 20 precincts were:

Beacon Hill: Kelly 201 and Zinn 51.

Blue Springs: Kelly 163 and Zinn 20.

Blythe: Kelly 70 and Zinn 4.

Center:  Kelly 120 and Zinn 6.

Central Maintenance: Kelly 299 and Zinn 38.

Courthouse: Kelly 223 and Zinn 51.

East Union: Kelly 229 and Zinn 50.

Glenfield: Kelly 189 and Zinn 52.

Hillcrest Church: Zinn 164 and Zinn 92.

Ingomar: Kelly 172 and Zinn 48.

Jericho: Kelly 120 and Zinn 4.

Keownville: Kelly 202 and Zinn 19.

King’s Chapel: Kelly 134 and Zinn 19.

Macedonia: Kelly 97 and Zinn 4.

Myrtle: Kelly 215 and Zinn 58.

NE Community College: Kelly 310 and Zinn 126.

Pinedale: Kelly 114 and Zinn 0.

Pleasant Ridge: Kelly 82 and Zinn 11.

Sportsplex: Kelly 239 and Zinn 129.

West Union: Kelly 172 and Zinn 8.

Interested in knowing what these two candidates spent getting into the runoff, compared to those who didn’t make the cut?  See: First District Congressional results: all about the money?