COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Republican Jean Schmidt defeated Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett in a special election for the U.S. House seat for the 2nd District in Ohio.
Schmidt totaled 59,095 votes -- 52 percent -- while Hackett, a Democrat, had 55,091, or 48 percent, in Tuesday's election in the district that covers seven countries in southern Ohio.
Hackett, a major in the Marine Reserves who opposed but served in the Iraq War, tried to make President Bush's leadership an issue in his campaign.
But Bush remains popular in the district in which he took some 64 percent of the vote for president in 2004 and Schmidt said her victory showed continued support for the president.
"The voters of the district responded the way they have so many times in the past -- by sending a proven conservative to represent them in Congress," Schmidt said in a Cincinnati Enquirer report.
The election was called after Rob Portman, who had represented the area for six terms, resigned to become U.S. trade representative.
