United States Attorney in April 1994. Gowdy received the Postal Inspector's Award for the successful prosecution of J. Mark Allen, one of "America's Most Wanted" suspects. In February 2000, he left the United States Attorney's Office to run for 7th Circuit solicitor. He defeated Solicitor Holman Gossett who was an incumbent, in the Republican primary and he ran unopposed in the general election. Gowdy was re-elected in 2004 and 2008, both times unopposed. During his tenure he appeared in four episodes of the television program Forensic Files, as well as Dateline NBC and SCETV. He prosecuted the set of criminal cases and seven of them were death penalty cases. U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2010 In the summer of 2009, Gowdy announced that he would challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Congressman Bob Inglis in the Republican primary for . Despite getting a 93% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, Inglis had angered the conservative wing of the Republican Party by taking stances that were perceived to be more moderate than those he had taken when he first represented the district from 1993 to 1999; besides opposing elements in his own party on issues including climate change, he attracted attention as a member of the Judiciary Committee for providing the deciding vote that prevented a measure designed to protect the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance from coming to the House floor. Gowdy was one of several candidates in the 2010 primary who ran well to Inglis' right. Inglis had drawn five Republican challengers, including Gowdy. In the June 2010 primary, Gowdy ranked first with 39% of the vote, short of the 50% majority threshold to win outright and avoid a run-off. Inglis received 27% of the vote. Jim Lee got 14%, State Senator David L. Thomas got 13%, and former Historian of the United States House of Representatives Christina Jeffrey was last with 7% of the vote. In the run-off election, Gowdy defeated Inglis 70–30%. The 4th district was considered so heavily Republican that it was widely presumed Gowdy had clinched a seat in Congress with his primary victory. Gowdy defeated Democratic nominee Paul Corden 63–29%. 2012 Gowdy ran for re-election to a second term against Democrat Deb Morrow. During redistricting following the 2010 census, one proposed map saw large portions of Gowdy's home county of Spartanburg County cut out of the district, while leaving all of Greenville