BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A U.S. House seat representing northeast and central Louisiana will remain firmly in Republican hands despite the departure of three-term incumbent Rep. Ralph Abraham, with polls closed Saturday in a runoff between two GOP contenders to take over the seat in Congress.

Candidates vying in the runoff are state Rep. Lance Harris and Abraham’s chief of staff, Luke Letlow. The election will settle one of the nation’s last outstanding congressional races of the 2020 cycle.

Harris and Letlow both ran as conservatives, with few policy distinctions between them. Instead, they ran on experience, background and character in an attack-laden few weeks after they were the top two vote-getters in the November primary and advanced to the runoff.

Runoffs were set in any Louisiana race where no candidate topped 50% of the vote in the Nov. 3 election.

The only election item facing voters in every parish on Saturday's ballot was a proposal to tweak the Louisiana Constitution's provisions on higher education management, to allow the governor to appoint someone who lives out of state to Louisiana's public university management boards.

In the 5th District race, the 40-year-old Letlow, from the small town of Start in Richland Parish, was considered the frontrunner. He launched his campaign with Abraham’s endorsement and outraised Harris, more than doubling Harris’ campaign cash. Letlow ran as an extension of Abraham’s tenure by saying he’d continue the work that the congressman has done in Washington.

“We probably don’t disagree on a lot of issues in terms of how we would vote,” Letlow said of he and Harris in the one TV debate held during the runoff. “But I’m a candidate that would get results.”

The 59-year-old Harris, from Alexandria, talked of his experience as a businessman running a chain of gas stations and as a pecan farmer, noting he didn’t run for a political office until about a decade ago. He contrasted that with Letlow’s background working for Abraham and former Gov. Bobby Jindal and as a lobbyist, criticizing Letlow as a Washington insider who lived off taxpayer-financed salaries.

“You have two choices: someone who’s made a career as a politically connected employee and lobbyist or someone who is a small businessman, a farmer who has created hundreds of jobs,” Harris said. “Washington is the problem. We need a difference.”

Letlow said he knew the sprawling district better than Harris and had spent years on behalf of Abraham traveling throughout its parishes, speaking with sheriffs and lawmakers. The district is largely rural, containing all or part of 24 parishes and the cities of Monroe and Alexandria.

“It’s a large district, the largest in the state. I know the issues. I won’t have to catch up,” Letlow said in the TV debate.

But Harris argued that Letlow was trying to co-opt Abraham’s accomplishments as his own and trying to make voters feel like they’d be casting a ballot for the popular congressman, rather than for Letlow.

“You’re a staffer for Dr. Abraham,” Harris told Letlow. “He’s not running for Congress.”

The 5th District was Louisiana’s last congressional seat to be decided after five incumbents in other districts secured victories in the primary. Nine candidates sought the seat in November. Letlow led the primary vote. Harris squeaked into the runoff, getting only about 400 more votes than the Democratic third-place finisher.

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