A Republican businessman from Oconee County is headed to the legislature to represent State House District 113.

Unofficial results show Chuck Williams captured 62 percent of the vote in Tuesday's runoff. His challenger, Democrat Dan Matthews, received just 38 percent. Williams drew strong support in the heavily Republican areas of his home county, and Morgan and Oglethorpe Counties.

Matthews failed to get enough Athens-Clarke County Democrats to show up at the polls.

Chuck Williams says his message and its delivery resonated.

“We did work real hard to not only get our message out but also to drive voter turnout. And as I understand it there were more votes cast in this runoff election, by a pretty significant margin, than there were in the special election a month ago.”

Williams will serve the remaining year and a half of Hank Huckaby’s term in the State House. Huckaby is now the Chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

In other elections around the state Tuesday, voters in Macon will go back to the polls next month to decide between current mayor Robert Reichert and former mayor Jack Ellis. The other contenders were former state Senator Robert Brown and political newcomer Paul Bronson.

Also in middle Georgia, there’s a runoff now set for the state Senate District 26 race between Miriam Paris and David Lucas. In House District 139, there is no runoff there, as James Beverly won that seat

Contributors: Associated Press

Tags: Athens, election, voters, northeast Georgia, runoff, Chuck Williams, House District 113