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NATCHEZ — Ron Eller won a Republican primary runoff Tuesday in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District and will face longtime Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson in the Nov. 5 general election.

Eller, who is a military veteran and physician assistant, defeated Andrew Scott Smith, who has worked in farming and commercial real estate. They had advanced to the Republican runoff as the top candidates in a three-person primary on March 12.

From Adams County, 174 voters also supported Eller over Smith, who received 56 votes.

Preliminary voting results show that throughout the district 6,272 Republicans voted in the runoff on Tuesday.

Election Commissioner Larry Gardner said seven absentee ballots were counted with the 232 votes from Adams County and two more have been received and not counted. Results have to be certified five business days after the election, which is Tuesday, April 9.

An estimated 97.4 percent of votes have been counted districtwide.

Comparatively, Republicans from Adams County accounted for 1,266 of the 2,997 voters in the March 12 primary election, which saw a dismal turnout of 8.19 percent of all the voters registered. Democrats accounted for 1,731 votes on March 12 but did not participate in Tuesday’s runoff.

No one voted at four of the Adams County precincts, Gardner said.

Thompson has represented the majority-Black district since winning a special election in 1993 and is currently serving his 15th term.

Since the reapportioning of the districts in 2022, Mississippi’s Second Congressional District now spans Mississippi’s western border from Tunica to Wilkinson County and includes Adams County.