Republican Representative Doug Collins was elected Congressman Tuesday for Georgia’s new 9th district. He defeated Democratic challenger, Jody Cooley, a Gainesville lawyer.

Collins won handily— with over 77% of the vote from the 20 county district.  He defeated two GOP challengers in the July primary and the August runoff in the newly created district. Collins says he’s planning to stay the conservative course when he heads to Washington—making the economy his priority:

"Well, I think it’s no different from our campaign, with our ride to Washington, what we’ve campaigned on is what we’re going to run with-- getting a balanced budget, getting our debt paid down, creating an atmosphere of jobs,  fixing our tax code and doing the things we need to be doing as a country."

Cooley, a Gainesville attorney, launched his campaign as the “common sense” candidate, focusing on what he called, ‘kitchen table’ issues, like creating a successful job program.  Cooley says when he offered Collins his congratulations after the results were in, he also gave him some advice:

"I encouraged him to reach across the aisle and form relationships with other people that can make a difference and reach an agreement on things, so we can move past such rigid partisanship and neither party feel like they have a monopoly on the best ideas."

According to the Cook Political report, it’s the most conservative district in the entire country. The new district was created when the 2010 census showed a population surge in North Georgia. 

Tags: election, 9th District, Doug Collins, Jody Cooley