Republican Jason Dickerson appears to have bested his Democratic opponent, Debra Shigley, in the special runoff election for a state Senate seat.

The contest for the Dist. 21 Georgia Senate seat attracted national attention after Shigley’s surprising first-place finish last month.

However, as of 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday night, Dickerson had 63 percent of the vote (16,448) to Shigley’s 36 percent (9,382).

Shigley, the lone Democrat in the race, won 40% of the vote last month in the first round of voting. Dickerson won 17.4% of the vote. A candidate must claim 50% of the vote to win in Georgia.

The race went from a seven-way contest to a head-to-head matchup.

The special election was called after former state Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican and staunch ally of President Donald

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