The results from Forsyth County in the Republican primary for governor Tuesday were similar to those of the state.

Karen Handel received 5,871 votes, or about 37 percent of the local total, with Nathan Deal drawing 5,274 votes, or about 33 percent.

Eric Johnson finished third in the local balloting, with 2,442 votes, or about 15 percent, while John Oxendine got 2,043 votes, or about 13 percent.

Handel, who got about 34 percent of the vote statewide, and Deal, with about 23 percent, advanced to a runoff on Aug. 10.

The winner will face former Gov. Roy Barnes, who ran away with the Democratic primary, in the Nov. 2 general election.

In Forsyth, Barnes received 947 votes, or about 73 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate, Thurbert Baker, drew 201 votes, or about 16 percent.

Graves-Hawkins rematch round 4

Tom Graves and Lee Hawkins will face each other yet again, this time in an Aug. 10 runoff for a two-year term in the District 9 U.S. House seat that begins in January.

Graves had captured 49.5 percent of the state vote. Hawkins finished with nearly 27 percent.

The District 9 seat was vacated by Nathan Deal, who resigned to run for governor. There are no Democrats running for the seat.

Graves won the June 8 special election runoff to fill the unexpired term through year’s end.

The 9th District includes all Forsyth County precincts except a handful on the county’s south end.

As they had in the May and June contests, Forsyth County voters backed Graves, giving him 7,715 votes, or about 61 percent, to 2,990 votes, or about 24 percent, for Lee Hawkins of Gainesville.

Steve Tarvin of Chickamauga finished third, with 1,125 Forsyth votes, or about 9 percent in the county. Statewide he garnered about 11,522 votes, or nearly 15 percent. About 38,823 Georgia voters selected Graves and about 20,947 chose Hawkins.


Runoff also in District 7 

On the Republican side, the District 7 U.S. House seat is headed to an Aug. 10 runoff between Rob Woodall and Jody Hice.

The district includes parts of Barrow, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Newton and Walton counties.

The district includes south Forsyth precincts 17, 19, 21 and 30, and a small part of precinct 8.

In Forsyth, Woodall tallied 957 votes, or 46 percent, to Hice's 403 votes, or 19 percent.

Clay Cox received 356 votes, or 17 percent, which put him in third locally.

Statewide, Woodall received about 36 percent of the vote, with Hice getting 26 percent. Cox got about 20 percent.

The seat is currently held by John Linder, who is not seeking re-election.

The winner of the Republican runoff will face Democrat Doug Heckman of Norcross in the Nov. 2 general election.


Knox comes up just short

In other state races of note, former state District 24 Rep. Tom Knox of Cumming carried Forsyth County in the Republican race for state insurance commissioner, but finished third statewide behind Ralph Hudgens and Maria Sheffield, who head to a runoff in August.

Knox received 5,694 votes, or about 41 percent of the local vote but only about 16 percent of the state vote.

In Forsyth, Hudgens finished second with 2,382 votes, or about 17 percent, while he drew about 21 percent of the state vote.

Sheffield finished with nearly 20 percent of the state’s vote, but received about 13 percent in Forsyth.

Fellow Forsyth County resident Gerry Purcell garnered 1,897 votes, or about 14 percent of the county’s votes, which was good for third place locally. But he finished fourth statewide with about 13 percent of the overall vote.