(CNN) - A Republican congressional candidate from Alabama, who last month won a bruising GOP primary battle, is now headed to Capitol Hill.
Bradley Byrne easily topped Democrat Burton LeFlore in a special election Tuesday to fill Alabama's vacant first congressional district seat. Byrne will succeed Republican former six-term Rep. Jo Bonner, who resigned from Congress in August to take a job with the University of Alabama system.
Byrne is a lawyer and former state senator who made an unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 2010.
In November Byrne came out on top in a Republican primary over real estate developer Dean Young. Some members of the House Republican leadership, such as Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, supported Byrne. And the U.S. Chamber of Congress launched ads backing him.
Young, who enjoyed tea party support, had made headlines by saying he believed that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and by adding that he wouldn't support having John Boehner continue as House Speaker. The primary runoff was characterized as a battle between the establishment vs. tea party and grassroots.
Byrne's victory in the general election was never in doubt. The Mobile area district is considered safe for Republicans, with Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney easily winning the district in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.