Georgia congressional seat heads to special election runoff

WASHINGTON (AP) — Residents of Georgia’s 13th Congressional District outside of Atlanta will get a new representative to Congress after a special election runoff Tuesday to replace the late Democratic U.S. Rep. David Scott, who died April 22.

The finalists for the seat are both Democrats, former Gwinnett County School Board Chair Everton Blair and Marcye Scott, daughter of the late congressman. They were the top two vote-getters among five contenders in the July 28 all-party special election. Scott received about 46% of the vote, compared to about 38% for Blair.

The winner will serve out the remaining few months of David Scott’s final term. Neither candidate is running for the next full term in this seat, which begins on Jan. 3, 2027.

Blair was the only candidate in the special election who also ran for the full-term seat. He placed third in the May 19 Democratic primary with about 12% of the vote. State Rep. Jasmine Clark won the primary with 56% of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November. Chavez, who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination, challenged David Scott in the 2024 general election and received about 28% of the vote.

Clark did not file to compete in the special election. Doing so would have required her to resign from her seat in the state Legislature just as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was calling for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries in time for the 2028 elections. The state constitution bars state officeholders from seeking a different office with a start date more than 30 days before the end of the officeholder’s current term. The special session did convene, but Republican leaders opted not to take up redistricting.

In recent years, Congressman Scott had faced questions over his age and health. At the time of his death at age 80, he was facing a tough primary challenge from Clark and others as he sought a 13th term.

Georgia’s 13th Congressional District is east and southeast of Atlanta and includes parts of six heavily Democratic counties: Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, Newton and Rockdale. Of the six, the district’s portion of Gwinnett County has the lion’s share of voters, with about 46% of the district electorate in the 2024 general election.

Blair’s best performance in the July 28 special election was in his home base of Gwinnett County, where he received 56% of the vote. Marcye Scott, who lives outside the district in Fulton County as her father did, carried the other five counties in the district, scoring her highest totals in DeKalb, Clayton and Henry.

David Scott won his 2024 reelection bid with about 72% of the vote. In the presidential election that night, Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris received about 71% of the vote in the district, compared with about 28% for Republican Donald Trump. Trump had his best performance in the district in Gwinnett County, although that still only amounted to about 35% of the vote.