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Primary results: U.S. House, Georgia State Senate runoff

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Georgia voters returned to the polls Tuesday for runoffs to settle party nominations in four congressional races and 17 legislative races.

Here’s a look at the races on Southeast Georgia ballots:

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1st Congressional District

Democratic voters choose Joyce Marie Griggs over Lisa Ring to challenge Republican incumbent Rep. Buddy Carter in the 1st District along Georgia’s Atlantic coast.

Ring, the nominee in 2018, won a plurality of votes in a three-way race in June, but Griggs received 55% of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff, as of Wednesday morning’s totals.

Griggs, an Iraq combat veteran, argues that Carter isn’t doing enough to represent all the district’s residents, and has touted support for less punitive federal prison sentencing and work to reduce police violence against Black people. Griggs has falsely claimed in campaign appearances that the Georgia Supreme Court overruled her 2004 disbarment. The former attorney remains barred from practicing law after the high court rejected her 2011 petition to be reinstated. Griggs unsuccessfully ran against then U.S. Rep Jack Kingston in 2000.

The district includes all or part of 17 counties from Savannah south to St. Mary’s and west to Valdosta.

Georgia Senate District 3

Republican Shelia McNeil was chosen with 63% of the vote. She was challenging Republican David Sharpe, who got 37% of the vote. A total of 9,800 ballots were cast. There is no Democrat or other candidate in the races, so McNeil will taken over when longtime Sen. William Ligon, of White Oak, retires at the end of the year.

Glynn County

Republican Walter Rafolski received 60% of the vote for the At-Large Post 2 county commission seat. while Republican Bo Clark received 40% of the vote. A total of 6,000 votes were cast. Rafolski will face Democrat Taylor Ritz in November.

Camden County

Democrat Kevin Walker took 64% of the vote for the District 1 county commission seat compared to Democrat Monica McGowan who got 36% of the vote.

Walker will face incumbent Republican Lannie Brant, who narrowly survived his primary challenger.

Pierce County

Republican Sheriff Ramsey Bennett took 52% of the vote compared to Blackshear Police Maj. Robby Boatright, who took 48% of the vote. Just over 4,000 ballots were cast.

North Georgia Congressional Districts

Republicans in two conservative north Georgia districts chose nominees to Congress on Tuesday, with voters in northwest Georgia’s 14th district embracing construction executive Marjorie Taylor Greene despite warnings from establishment Republicans about her support of conspiracy theories and racist remarks. But Republicans in northeast Georgia’s 9th District chose gun dealer and Navy veteran Andrew Clyde, spurning anti-establishment rebel and state Rep. Matt Gurtler. Democrats also choose nominees in the 9th District and in coastal Georgia’s 1st District. A challenger beat Fulton County’s district attorney in a Democratic runoff and two Democratic state House members were trying to keep their jobs, with a total of 17 state legislative races on the ballot.