Ex-Reebok CEO Wins GOP Senate Primary

Businessman David Perdue has won the GOP nomination for a Senate race the party cannot afford to lose. Perdue, former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General, narrowly beat 11-term Rep. Jack Kingston in a runoff election in Georgia to become the party's Senate nominee, reports the New York Times. He will face Democrat Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, in a race seen as key to control of the Senate for the last years of President Obama's term.

Democrats see Georgia as their best chance of picking up another Senate seat this fall, while Republicans need to win six more seats to regain a majority, the AP notes. The seat is being vacated by Saxby Chambliss, a Republican. Both candidates have plenty of cash on hand, and outside groups have already poured more than $8 million into the race. "I respect Michelle Nunn. I respect her family," Perdue said after his victory last night, adding, "I will prosecute the failed record of the last six years of Barack Obama." (More Election 2014 stories.)