Democrats held onto one of two party strongholds after a special election on Tuesday and a Republican took over a longtime blue seat.

Secretary of State Michael Adams announced the unofficial results for House Districts 67 and 99 about an hour after the polls closed Tuesday night.

With all precincts in District 67 reporting, Democrat Rachel Roberts defeated Republican Mary Jo Wedding by more than 1,000 votes. Roberts got 2,955 votes and Wedding got 1,649.

And in District 99, preliminary results showed Republican Richard White defeating Democrat Bill Redwine by around 1,000 votes.Redwine got 3,731 total votes, and White got 4,750.

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Mac Brown congratulated White in a statement on the "historic victory."

"After Democrat Rocky Adkins held this district since the 1980s, Kentucky Republicans can be justly proud of all Richard White and our grassroots team did to flip this seat to GOP control," Brown said. "Tonight’s groundbreaking results should put Democrats on notice all across the state. Kentucky voters want leaders who support President Trump. Our strong slate of candidates all across the state are well positioned to even further expand our GOP legislative supermajorities in November.”

In a statement, House Democratic Caucus leadership addressed the results of both races.

"Congratulations to Rachel Roberts on her hard-fought victory and we look forward to her joining our caucus," Leader Joni Jenkins, caucus chair Derrick Graham and caucus whip Angie Hatton said.. "We also want to thank Bill Redwine for running a strong campaign during a special election that was especially tough during these winter months. With these elections now behind us, our caucus is once again focused on fighting for a vision that benefits all of us and not just some of us, both in the remaining days of the legislative session and in the months ahead. "

House Districts 67 and 99 have been without representation in Frankfort during the 2020 legislative session. This is due to the districts' previous representatives — Democrats Dennis Keene and Rocky Adkins, respectively — taking positions in new Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's administration.

In a video posted to Twitter just after the polls closed at 6 p.m., Adams said there was a high voter turnout in the District 99 race simply because of the novelty of a new person filling the seat.

"There's a lot of interest in what's now an open seat that hasn't been open for some 30-something years," he said.

Around 2 p.m., the Rowan County Clerk reported 17% turnout. In Campbell County, turnout was around 10% at that time.

Here's some background on the election.

Related:Why the Democrats' bid to regain control in the Kentucky House is already behind

These districts are Democratic strongholds

Both districts have belonged to the blue party for at least the past three to four decades.

In House District 67, Keene served in Frankfort's lower chamber from 2005 to 2019 before taking a gig as Beshear's commissioner of the Department of Local Government. Prior to that, Democratic Rep. Jim Callahan served the northern Kentucky district for 18 years.

Further east in District 99, Adkins served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1986 to 2019, climbing to the rank of leadership in his final years in legislative office.

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Republicans will maintain a supermajority no matter what

Kentucky Republicans currently maintain a 61-37 lead over their Democratic opposition in the House.

Therefore, no matter what the outcome of these races are, the best Democrats can hope for is to regain seats from the prior legislative session. This will be a test if Democrats can maintain their grip on traditional areas, or if Republicans are making further headway in more rural districts.

Republicans also maintain a 29-9 supermajority in the Kentucky Senate.

Winners of these elections will have to run again in November

The celebrations will be short for whoever wins Tuesday's special elections.

The victors will have to run again in November to win two-year terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives, as the special elections only determine who will serve for the remainder of the 2020 legislative session.

All four candidates on the ballot Tuesday have filed to run for 2020, with an extra Republican filing in each district.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-582-4181 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.