NATCHEZ — Democrat Bob Dearing held a small lead Tuesday night over incumbent Republican Melanie Sojourner for the District 37 Senate seat.

As of 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, unofficial election results from the Associated Press had Dearing with 51 percent of the vote, or 7,466 votes. Sojourner had 49 percent with 7,303 votes. Fifty-five of 57 precincts had reported results.

Dearing spent 32 years in the Senate before losing his seat to Sojourner in 2011.

Dearing posted on his Facebook page Tuesday night that the unofficial results he received showed him winning Adams and Franklin counties and losing Amite and Pike, with absentee ballots still to be counted.