Gulfport Mayoral Race: Keating claims victory; absentee ballots yet to be counted

GULFPORT, Miss. (WXXV)- We have the first numbers of the night in the hotly contested race for Gulfport mayor.

According to our media partner, the Sun Herald, Republican Hugh Keating leads Democrat Sonya Williams Barnes right now with 54 percent of the vote, according to those unofficial returns. Keating has 6,428 votes. Williams Barnes has 5,309 votes.

This does not account for absentee and affidavit ballots, there are still around 1,400 of those votes left to count in this race.

Still, at this hour, Keating is claiming victory in what has been a very closely watched race.

We will keep you updated once those absentee and affidavit ballots have been counted.