David Perdue has advanced to a runoff in the Georgia Republican Senate primary, and he’ll have to get back to campaigning soon.

Perdue will likely face Rep. Jack Kingston or former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel in a runoff July 22. Kingston is currently in second place, six points ahead of former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. The second place finisher has not yet been declared.

Georgia election law requires that a candidate get at least 50 percent plus one vote in order to be elected. No one in the crowded GOP field did that Tuesday night.

So that brings us to July, when two candidates will square off to decide which of them will face Democrat Michelle Nunn in November.

Perdue captured 30 percent of the vote with 64 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press, which called the race. Kingston had 27.2 percent and Handel 21 percent.

They were followed by Reps. Phil Gingrey (10.1 percent), Paul Broun ( 9.8 percent), transit engineer Derrick Grayson (1 percent) and patent attorney Arthur Gardner (0.9 percent).

Tonight’s runoff may be the only expected development in a race that has taken twists and turns, including a shift toward nastiness in the waning weeks.

Perdue, the former CEO of Reebok and Dollar General, is a political neophyte with a big war chest. He has name recognition in the state thanks to his cousin, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue. Kingston has been in Washington for 22 years and is not afraid to tout his Beltway credentials. He has the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Handel cast herself as a more conservative choice. She was a vice president at the Susan G. Komen Foundation and resigned after acknowledging that she supported the organization’s decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood.

Should Kingston win second place, the runoff between him and Perdue is bound to be a lively one, said Kerwin Swint, a professor of political science at Kennesaw State University.

“If it’s Perdue and Kingston that is going to be an expensive, mean runoff,” Swint said.