BATON ROUGE - Troy Carter won the 2nd Congressional District runoff race, beating his opponent Karen Carter Peterson.

The 2nd Congressional District race was called Saturday night after an intense race between the two democratic legislative colleagues for the U.S. House seat.

Carter won by nearly 10,000 votes, ending the night with 48,511 votes to Peterson's 39,295 votes. 

The congressional district runs from New Orleans up to parts of downtown and north Baton Rouge. The district seat opened up after Cedric Richmond, who endorsed Carter in the race, left the position last year to work as a presidential advisor.

Peterson and Carter, both state senators, were the top candidates in the March primary.

Carter ran on a platform advocating for criminal justice reform, abortion rights, COVID-19 recovery funding and student loan debt relief, among other issues.

"I want you all to know you deserve the resources to live up to your full potential," Carter said in a press release about the victory. "You deserve a voice in Washington. And that's who I will be. The voice of the people- you, my constituents."