JACKSON, Miss.- A special election date to fill the seat left vacant in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District by the passing of Rep. Alan Nunnelee on Feb. 6. has been set for May 12 by Governor Phil Bryant.
“Alan Nunnelee served the people of Mississippi with integrity and distinction,” Gov. Bryant said. “We will remember him and miss him long past this election.”
The qualifying deadline for candidates is 5 p.m. on March 27.
If no candidate receives a majority of the votes cast in the special election, a runoff election will be held June 2.
The 1st District stretches from Memphis, Tennessee, suburbs in DeSoto County, down to the Golden Triangle area in the north central part of the state. It includes Southaven, Oxford, Tupelo, Iuka, Columbus and Louisville.
Nunnelee, of Tupelo, first won the seat in 2010. He was 56-years-old when he died from brain cancer.