Mississippi Republicans picked Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) as their nominee to succeed retiring Gov. Phil Bryant (R) on Tuesday, three weeks after Reeves was unexpectedly forced into a runoff against a rival who attacked him from the right.

ADVERTISEMENT Reeves beat Bill Waller Jr., a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and son of a former governor, according to The Associated Press.

Reeves led the Aug. 6 primary with 49 percent of the vote, just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Waller took a third of the vote, while state Rep. Robert Foster (R) took about 18 percent.

Reeves was the odds-on favorite to win the Republican primary, the protege of former Gov. Haley Barbour (R) and Bryant, two Republicans who did not always represent the same factions of the Mississippi Republican Party. Bryant endorsed Reeves in February, while Barbour endorsed him last week.

Still, Waller and Foster said Reeves had taken the Republican primary for granted, and attacked him as a member of the political elite.

Reeves spent about $2 million hammering Waller in the three weeks between the primary and the runoff, according to a source close to the campaign. He attacked Waller's support for expanding Medicaid to cover low-income Mississippians under the Affordable Care Act. Reeves called Medicaid expansion an extension of ObamaCare, a deeply unpopular law in a state former President Obama lost twice by wide margins.

Reeves also said he opposed raising the gas tax, which Waller supported as a way to repair Mississippi's infrastructure.

Reeves now enters a sprint to the general election against Attorney General Jim Hood (D), one of the last remaining Democrats to hold statewide office in the Deep South. Reeves begins the matchup with Hood with about $2.5 million in the bank, the source said.

Hood had $1.4 million in the bank at the beginning of July, according to state campaign finance reports. Hood has not had to report his fundraising since then, after he avoided a runoff in the Democratic primary.

Democrats are more optimistic about the race than they have been in any recent year, though the last few public polls have showed Reeves leading Hood. None of those surveys were conducted since mid-July, long before the Republican primary turned nasty.

In Kentucky, Gov. Matt Bevin (R) is leaning heavily on his support for Trump as he fends off Attorney General Andy Beshear (D), son of the governor Bevin replaced.

In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) is being challenged by five rivals, including two Republicans — Rep. Ralph Abraham and contractor Eddie Rispone — who have spent millions on their campaigns. All six candidates running face off in an Oct. 12 primary, with a runoff scheduled for Nov. 16 if no candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote.