Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Voters will select a successor to the late Sen. Alice Harden on Feb. 5.

If no candidate wins a majority, a runoff will be held Feb. 26.

Gov. Phil Bryant set the election dates Tuesday. Candidates, who will run without party labels, must qualify by Jan. 7. Senate District 28 covers parts of Hinds County.

Harden, a Democrat from Jackson, died Dec. 6. She was 64. The former educator was the first black woman elected to the Mississippi Senate, winning office in 1987.

The Senate usually has 52 members. There are two vacancies now because of the deaths of Harden and Sen. Bennie Turner of West Point, also a black Democrat. Turned died Nov. 27. A vacancy from DeSoto County was recently filled by David Parker, an Olive Branch Republican.