Ga. GOP Senate slot filled
David Perdue will face Michelle Nunn.
ATLANTA - Businessman David Perdue defeated longtime Rep. Jack Kingston in a Republican runoff for Georgia's U.S. Senate nomination, setting up a general election matchup against Democrat Michelle Nunn.
On Tuesday night, unofficial returns showed Perdue with a lead of more than 6,000 votes, with about 93 percent of precincts reporting.
Perdue is a former corporate CEO making his first bid for public office. He campaigned as an outsider and called Kingston a career politician who has done little to solve the nation's problems.
Kingston is an 11-term congressman from Savannah.
The Perdue-Nunn race will be one of the most critical matchups of the November midterm elections.
Republicans need six more seats to win Senate control for the final two years of President Obama's administration.
Perdue and Kingston topped five other candidates in a May primary, but neither reached the majority necessary to win outright.
Both candidates greeted their supporters at their campaign parties Tuesday evening in Atlanta. Kingston was at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. Perdue was at a hotel in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.
Kingston hugged several supporters and talked individually with some of them.
Perdue also acknowledged his supporters and spoke with assembled media.
"Let's get a decision and let's go fight the Democrats in the fall - that's what I'm ready to do," he told reporters.