(AP Photo/Rebecca Breyer, File)ATLANTA – Former Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin advanced to a runoff in Tuesday’s special election to fill the short remainder of the late John Lewis’ term in Congress.
Hall and Franklin led five other candidates in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, but no one won a majority.
Voters will be called back to the polls for the Dec. 1 runoff, deciding whether Hall or Franklin will get only a month in Congress representing the Atlanta-centered district.
Three Democrats didn’t advance after Tuesday’s vote: retiring state Rep. “Able” Mable Thomas, former state Rep. Keisha Waites and Barrington Martin II, a teacher who lost the Democratic primary to Lewis earlier this year.
Thomas served 22 years in the state House over three separate terms and ran unsuccessfully for the congressional seat twice against Lewis.