In 2018 Metro Atlanta’s 7th Congressional District featured the single closest election in the country. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA07) defeated Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux by just 400 votes, a minuscule .15% margin.
Trump carried the district, which includes parts of Forsyth and Gwinnett Counties, by six points in 2016, and Woodall had never had a serious primary challenge nor a remotely close general election since winning office in 2010. The seat was considered at worst to lean Republican, and most polls had Woodall up by 5% or more ahead of the election.
However, for the GOP, there was reason for concern. Many Republican observers leading up to the race lamented Woodall’s weakness in both campaigning and fundraising, never strong suits for the former chief of staff to Republican Congressman John Linder, sparked concern. Indeed Bourdeaux raised nearly $3 million over the course of her campaign compared to just $1.2 million for the incumbent. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, smelling blood in the water, directed resources into the race.
The end result of course was that mere-400 vote win for Woodall, one that held up even after an automatically-triggered recount. Less than four months later, in February, Woodall announced that he would be retiring from public office at the end of his term, saying “Doing what you love requires things of you, and having had that family transition made me start to think about those things that I have invested less in because I’ve been investing more here.”
So what was just recently a safe Republican seat is now perhaps the nation’s fiercest battleground, and predictably there is no shortage of hungry candidates itching to jump into the fray. So far eleven candidates – five Democrats and six Republicans – have officially announced campaigns, with more weighing bids of their own from the sidelines.
Bourdeaux, a Georgia State professor, is back – and coming off that near-upset bid last year is the presumptive frontrunner for her party’s nomination. In most cycles you might expect such a primary to be a coronation – but not so this time around. State Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero (D-Norcross), the first Latina elected to the Georgia legislature, is also running in a district that has seen non-white voter numbers soar in recent years. Also declared are former Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves, fresh off a failed Atlanta mayoral bid, Democratic operative Nabilah Islam, and longshot candidate Marqus Cole.
On the Republican side five little-known candidates jumped into what appeared to be a wide open race, but the bigger fish are starting to appear. Ben Bullock, Lynne Homrich, Lerah Lee, Rich McCormick, and Joe Profit are all lesser-known candidates hoping to catch lightning in the bottle. For now the frontrunner is State Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), a high profile legislator who has been a key figure in healthcare debate under the Gold Dome for much of the past decade. She is perhaps best known for being the GOP’s public face behind this year’s controversial “Heartbeat Bill,” a fact which will no doubt be a key issue in both the primary and general election should she advance.
In fact many think the general election, should Unterman win the primary, will be something of a referendum on abortion and women’s rights. Already Bourdeaux and Islam have traded barbs on social media with Unterman, never one to shy away from a fight. “I have a history in the Georgia Senate of carrying most of the pro-life bills and I’m very much pro-life. And I will be able to talk very fluently about it” she told reporters shortly after jumping into the race earlier this month. She also pointed to her track record of advancing healthcare issues in the legislature, perhaps most notably her effort to fight opioid abuse, another hot-button issue in the district.
The 2018 midterms were brutal for Republicans in the Metro Atlanta suburbs, but they hope that 2020 will be a different story. Bolstered by a strong economy and the presence of President Donald Trump on the ticket, they are leaning into their pro-life message for better or worse, and few races in the country will offer a better look at that battle than in Georgia’s 7th district.
