Republican Michael Melerine won the BESE District 4 runoff on Saturday against Democrat Cassie Williams. Melerine, who finished second to Williams in the general election on March 20, won the runoff easily with 62% of the 38,087 ballots cast. He won the majority of votes in Bossier, Webster, DeSoto, Red River, Winn, Vernon, Natchitoches and Sabine parishes. Williams had 14,546 votes or 38% of the vote. She had finished first in the general election with 29% of the vote, but was forced to the runoff after failing to earn over 50% of the vote. Williams won the majority of votes in Caddo and Bienvi Melerine will replace Republican Troy Davis of Natchitoches who resigned from his seat last year. Melerine, a Shreveport attorney, was one of the first candidates to qualify as a candidate for the District 4 seat.