Tracey Rosebud

Democrats retained a House seat in a special-election runoff held on Tuesday.

In a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Rep. Robert Huddleston, who retired abruptly earlier this year, Tracey Rosebud earned 1,429 votes, or 53 percent, while conservative Blake Ferretti garnered 1,275 votes, or 47 percent, according to unofficial vote counts from Tuesday.

Rosebud will caucus with the House Democrats and the Legislative Black Caucus.

Four candidates ran for the seat on May 8, with Rosebud and Ferretti making the May 29 runoff. Race was a common theme within the district, with many openly questioning whether a white person should win the election.

The seat, which Huddleston held for 23 years, represents a district that is 61 percent black. The district – stretching from Shaw, up to Cleveland, over to Ruleville, and up toward Clarksdale – was drawn in the early 1990s for a black representative.

Rosebud is black and from Tutwiler; Blake Ferretti is white and from Cleveland. Although the runoff was officially nonpartisan, Democratic groups supported Rosebud while conservative groups backed Ferretti.

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Adam Ganucheau, as Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief, oversees the newsroom and works with the editorial team to fulfill our mission of producing high-quality journalism in the public interest. Adam has covered politics and state government for Mississippi Today since February 2016. A native of Hazlehurst, Adam has worked as a staff reporter for AL.com, The Birmingham News and The Clarion-Ledger and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Adam earned his bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi.