Richard E. (Ben) Bates won the Democratic Party runoff in the race for Marengo County sheriff, beating out Randy Sanders Tuesday night 2,946 to 2,568.

Before the last of the precincts reported in, Sanders conceded the race to Bates and congratulated him.

“Randy came over, and he congratulated me unofficially,” Bates said. “He said that there were a couple of boxes still out, but he felt that I would carry them now.

“I feel a little more relieved. I’m going to beat the bushes a little bit more, and hope that the voters who didn’t come out today will come out in November.”

Michael Thompson unseated incumbent Jerry Loftin for the Marengo County Commission District 5 seat, 833 to 609.

“It was really interesting,” said Thompson, a process engineer with Georgia Pacific. “I got to meet a lot of people and hearing their needs and their wants.

“A lot of the people were interested in getting their roads fixed. There were other issues, too, like school safety.”

In the Republican Party governor’s runoff, Dr. Robert Bentley outscored Bradley Byrne 634 to 225 in Marengo County.

Bentley won the GOP nomination statewide, perhaps with some help from advertising from Demopolis native Andy Renner’s True Republican PAC that ran before the June 1 primary labeling Byrne as a “Republican in name only.” Bentley will face Democratic nominee Ron Sparks in November.

In the race for U.S. Representative in the 7th District, Terri Sewell outdid Shelia Smoot in Marengo County, 2,771 to 2,213 for the Democratic nomination, while Don Chamberlain bested Chris Salter 370 to 294 countywide for the Republican nomination.

Other runoff election results for Marengo County Tuesday night include:

State attorney general (Democrat): James Anderson 2,883, Giles Perkins 1,612.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Industries (Republican): John McMillan 481, Dorman Grace 240.

Public Service Commission, Place No. 1 (Republican): Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh 366, Stephen Evans 326.