Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., who survived the closest House race of the 2018 elections, will retire at the end of his current term, the lawmaker said Thursday.
Woodall, first elected in 2010, represents the 7th District, in the northeast Atlanta metropolitan area. Long a Republican stronghold, the suburban-exurban area is becoming increasingly competitive politically, with an influx of immigrants and transplants from Northeast states who bring a more Democratic outlook.
In 2018, a Democratic wave year in which the party won the House majority for the first time in eight years, Woodall experienced the scare of his political life. He beat his Democratic challenger, Carolyn Bourdeaux, by fewer than 450 votes out of about 280,000 cast.
Experiencing life in the House minority for the first time in his congressional career, Woodall on Thursday cited political and family reasons — specifically his father’s recent death — in calling it quits after the 2020 elections.
“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,” Woodall told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Woodall’s district was already targeted by Democrats as a pickup opportunity. A slew of Republicans are likely to seek their party’s nomination. On the Democratic side, Bourdeaux, an ex-congressional aide like Woodall before his 2010 election, is giving a hard look at running again in 2020.
