page_title: 2010 United States House of Representatives elections in Georgia
section_title: District 7
hierarchical_section_title: 2010 United States House of Representatives elections in Georgia / District 7
caption_attribution_description: English: Georgia congressional candidate Doug Heckman
context_page_description: Elections were held on November 2, 2010, to determine Georgia's 13 members of the United States House of Representatives. Representatives were elected for two-year terms to serve in the 112th United States Congress from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. Primary elections were held on July 20, 2010, and primary runoff elections were held on August 10, 2010.
  Of the 13 elections, the races in the 2nd and 8th districts were rated as competitive by CQ Politics, The Rothenberg Political Report, and Sabato's Crystal Ball, and the 2nd, 8th and 12th districts were rated as competitive by The Cook Political Report. Of Georgia's thirteen incumbents, eleven were re-elected, while one did not seek re-election and one unsuccessfully sought re-election.
  In total, eight Republicans and five Democrats were elected. A total of 2,468,680 votes were cast, of which 1,528,142 were for Republican candidates, 940,347 were for Democratic candidates and 191 were for write-in candidates.
context_section_description: The 7th district included Duluth and Lawrenceville. The district's population was 60 percent white, 19 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic and 8 percent Asian (see Race and ethnicity in the United States Census); 87 percent were high school graduates and 34 percent had received a bachelor's degree or higher. Its median income was $67,059. In the 2008 presidential election the district gave 60 percent of its vote to Republican nominee John McCain and 39 percent to Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
  Republican John Linder, who took office in 1993, was the incumbent. Linder was re-elected in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote. In 2010 Linder retired rather than seeking re-election. The candidates in the general election were Republican nominee Rob Woodall, Linder's former chief of staff; and Democratic nominee Doug Heckman, a financial services manager. Clay Cox, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives; Chuck Efstration, an assistant district attorney in Gwinnett County; Jef Fincher, a small business owner and flight attendant; Ronnie Grist, a retired employee of the state government; Jody Hice, a radio talk show host and former pastor; Tom Kirby, a human resource safety manager; and Tom Parrott, a salesman and former accountant, also sought the Republican nomination.
  In February 2010, a consultant for Karen Handel, a former Secretary of State of Georgia, said Handel would not seek the Republican nomination in the 7th district and would instead remain a candidate in the gubernatorial election. The same month John Smoltz, a former Atlanta Braves pitcher, said he would not seek the Republican nomination. In March 2010, Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition of America, said he would not run. David Shafer, a member of the Georgia State Senate who had considered seeking the Republican nomination, announced in March 2010 that he would not run. Don Balfour, also a member of the State Senate, announced that he would run in March 2010, but later that month ended his campaign.
  Woodall and Hice advanced to the primary runoff election. In a poll of the runoff, conducted on August 28, 2010, by Landmark Communications, Inc. (LCI) with a sample size of 789, Woodall led with 47 percent to Hice's 32 percent while 20 percent were undecided. Heckman was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
  Woodall raised $399,086 and spent $323,801. Heckman raised $81,220 and spent $73,899. Cox raised $287,336 and spent $286,474. Efstration raised $56,214 and spent $54,102. Fincher raised $33,100 and spent the same amount. Hice raised $279,017 and spent $278,566. Kirby raised $5,925 and spent $8,122. Parrott raised $17,475 and spent $14,515.
  In a poll of 1,070 likely voters, conducted by LCI on October 25, 2010, Woodall led with 60 percent to Heckman's 30 percent. Prior to the election FiveThirtyEight's forecast gave Woodall a 100 percent chance of winning and projected that he would receive 68 percent of the vote to Heckman's 32 percent. On election day Woodall was elected with 67 percent of the vote to Heckman's 33 percent. Woodall was re-elected in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. Hice was elected as the U.S. Representative for the 10th district in 2014 and was re-elected in 2016 and 2018.
caption: Doug Heckman, who also ran in the 7th district
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