Former Democratic Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall won a special runoff election Tuesday to briefly fill the late John Lewis’ Congressional seat.
Hall, who will only hold the seat through Jan. 3, defeated Democrat Robert Franklin after neither candidate won a majority in September’s special election to fill the seat, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Thank you! I am humbled, truly humbled to earn this privilege. pic.twitter.com/b9To0Ewb85
— Kwanza Hall (@kwanzahall) December 2, 2020
The district includes most of Atlanta, along with areas of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties. Despite the large area, less than 5%, roughly only 22,000 people, voted in the election, according to the AP.
Lewis’ long-term replacement will be Democratic State Senator Nikema Williams, who chaired the Democratic Party of Georgia prior to taking her senate seat in 2017, according to ABC. (RELATED: Ann Coulter On Georgia: ‘The Future Of Western Civilization Comes Down To This State’)
Lewis died July 17 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in 2019, Lewis said that fight was one unlike he’s ever known.
“I have been in some kind of fight – for freedom, equality, basic human rights – for nearly my entire life,” he said in a statement. “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.”
“I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community,” Lewis continued.
Prior to taking office in 1987, Lewis was an original Freedom Rider who demonstrated against segregation and racism, riding interstate buses throughout the South to protest segregated bus terminals, according to Business Insider. Arrested and jailed for challenging Jim Crow laws, Lewis was also an organizer for the March on Washington alongside civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.