[This story features updates from the version appearing in Wednesday’s print edition.]

Local voters sent a political newcomer to the Alabama Senate, and sent a conservative think-tank founder who’s never held elected office before to the United States Congress.

Gary Palmer, the founder of the Alabama Policy Institute, defeated state Rep. Paul DeMarco by a 64-36 percentage margin, and most statewide news media projected the victory for Palmer at 8:30 p.m. The final raw vote total was 47,491 for Palmer, 27,295 for DeMarco.

And in the Senate District 17 race to fill the seat vacated by Scott Beason of Gardendale, businessman Shay Shelnutt of Trussville narrowly beat attorney Brett King of Locust Fork. Shelnutt’s lead was 540 votes — 52 percent to 48 — with all boxes reporting.

The congressional race, which began with Palmer, DeMarco, Beason and four others early this year, came down to the final two after DeMarco took first place by a large margin, but nowhere near enough to avoid the runoff.

Palmer, who sneaked through the field while challengers Chad Mathis and Will Brooke took shots at each other in campaign advertising, edged out Beason for second place and a spot in the runoff.

Leading up to Tuesday’s vote, the campaign ads flew back and forth with charges that the opponent was soft on taxes, or other causes held dear to voters in the heavily-conservative Sixth District.

One of those ads backfired on DeMarco, though, when a quote attributed to Palmer from a 2003 article in The Tuscaloosa News seemed to show Palmer favoring a tax increase.

The ad, though, cut Palmer’s quote off before he indicated that such an increase would be acceptable only if “meaningful accountability measures” were put in place. DeMarco’s ad was quickly and roundly criticized on talk radio and in political blogs.

Palmer also benefitted from an infusion of independent advertising by the conservative “super PAC” Club for Growth, which had previously backed Mathis in the primary. The Hill, a political newspaper in Washington, D.C. said that the group had spent more than $250,000 on ads favoring Palmer and criticizing DeMarco.

Palmer had also been endorsed by all but one of his former primary opponents, including Beason.

Little publicly-available polling was done before Tuesday’s runoff, and the only poll of any note showed Palmer winning by 30 percentage points — a margin that even the pollster suspected was way off the mark, but proved to be closer to the actual margin than pundits thought.

Palmer faces Democratic opponent Avery Vise and Libertarian candidate Aimee Love in the December general election, but the Sixth District is widely considered one of the most conservative in the nation, and Palmer is a heavy favorite to win the seat being vacated by retiring 11-term Rep. Spencer Bachus.

In the Senate race, public polling was non-existent and campaigning was largely limited to traditional methods like yard signs and door-to-door visits with voters. King had also done some online ads for the runoff.

The night was the very definition of a political horse race, as returns swung from side to side throughout Tuesday evening. Warly returns from Blount County favored King, then Shelnutt drew ahead as Jefferson County returns arrived, and then the two went back and forth until Shelnutt pulled ahead for good at the very end.

The winner faces no opposition in the general election, and in January will assume the seat held by Beason for two terms.

In statewide races, Chip Beeker defeated incumbent Terry Dunn 59-41 for the Public Service Commission Place 2 seat, Jim Zeigler routed Dale Peterson by a 2-1 margin in the state auditor race, and John Merill edged Reese McKinney 53-47 in thr race for secretary of state.