Following up a first place primary with a runoff win, Republican candidate Ray McKinney will face incumbent John Barrow this November in the race for Georgia’s 12th congressional district.

                With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, McKinney secured 62.1 percent of the district vote in a runoff win over Thunderbolt fire chief Carl Smith, who received 37.9 percent. Republican voter turnout for the runoff dropped only slightly from the primary with 22,957 total votes cast on August 10 compared with 27,477 votes cast on July 20. McKinney received 14,246 district votes to Smith’s 8,711 in the runoff.

McKinney said internal polling by his campaign showed him winning the July 20 primary and had him leading in the runoff, but he stressed that a candidate can never be comfortable with polling results until the votes are tallied.

“When you have four candidates….you think you know where you’re at, but until the votes come in you really don’t know,” McKinney said. “We feel vindicated that we were running the right campaign – we ran against John Barrow; we ran based on my private experience. The people voted, the people made their choice and we’ll run the same message against Barrow.”

                The vote totals in Bulloch County made for a closer race with McKinney gathering 1,909 votes, or 56.1 percent to Smith’s 1492 votes, or 43.9 percent.

McKinney wanted to take the opportunity to express his gratitude for the people who donated their time, effort and money to his campaign.

“It’s thanks. Thank you so very much. These people worked very hard – most of them are volunteers – and they put it all on the line,” McKinney said. “That’s what America’s about. One of the quotes I like to use is, ‘America’s not ruled by the majority, but by the majority who participated’ (Jefferson).”

                Now that his campaign is complete, Smith said he’d take a few days to spend some time with his family, who he hasn’t seen much in the final days on campaign trail. He said he told people before he ran that he would put “principles before politics” and he feels he ran a campaign that upheld that promise.

“I feel blessed, very, very humbled and appreciative of all the support I received,” Smith said. “I can’t say think you enough to all the people that did help me.”

Smith said he is unsure if he will be an active part of the push to unseat Barrow in November.

“I really don’t know. I ran because I wanted to give people in the 12th a viable alternative to John Barrow and I just don’t think they have that now,” Smith said. “(GA 12th voters) pretty much have two professional politicians who will say or do anything to get elected. That’s just not the way politics needs to be but that seems to be the way it is right now.”

                McKinney said he was going to have a staff meeting later Tuesday evening  then will hit the phones and hit the ground running Wednesday. He said he’s going to keep the lines of communication open with the other Republican primary campaigns with the hope they can work together when McKinney faces Barrow in November.

                “I think I’ve made it clear from the get-go that, from my standpoint no matter who won the race, I would be supporting the candidate against John Barrow,” McKinney said. “Of course, this is a team effort. We are the Republican Party and all Republicans, all independents and even Democrats who want to join in this endeavor to beat John Barrow are welcome. That’s what it’s going to take – a coalition of people working together against an incumbent. So yes, everybody’s welcome and the door’s open.”

                The general election will be held Nov. 2. For complete election results, visit the Georgia Secretary of State website at http://sos.georgia.gov.