2 Georgia Democrats are competing Tuesday to serve the final month of Rep. John Lewis' term

Rep. John Lewis
(Image credit: Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images)

Georgia's 5th Congressional District is holding a runoff election Tuesday in which two Democrats are vying for the chance to serve a month in Congress, before handing the seat off to Nikema Williams, the Democratic state senator who won the seat Nov. 3. In Tuesday's election, former Atlanta City Council member Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin — the top two vote-getters from September's seven-person primary — are competing go serve out the remainder of the late Rep. John Lewis' (D-Ga.) final term in office, which ends Jan. 3.

Lewis, a civil rights icon and the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, died from pancreatic cancer in July at age 80. He had represented the Atlanta-area seat in Congress since 1987. The winner of Tuesday's runoff — Hall, 49, or Franklin, 66 — won't do much more than vote on a stopgap budget and, if the stars align, a COVID-19 relief package. "It's about moral leadership at a time of national crisis," Franklin said, pointing to the examples from Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.