Marcye Scott, daughter of late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., fell short of the 50% majority needed Tuesday to win her father’s congressional seat outright, forcing her into an Aug. 25 runoff against former Gwinnett County school board chair Everton Blair.
Scott received 47.5% of the vote while Blair captured 36.1% when the Associated Press called the race around 8:45 p.m. Eastern time, with 85% of the expected vote counted. Republican Caesar Gonzales trailed far behind in third with just 8.5%.
The runoff will determine who serves the final weeks of the late congressman’s term in the heavily Democratic metro Atlanta 13th Congressional District following his death in April at age 80.
It will not determine who represents the district for the next full two-year term beginning in January — voters held a separate primary for that term in May, with the general election set for Nov. 3.
Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Clark won the regularly scheduled May primary for the full term with roughly 56% of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November.
“Right after my dad passed, a lot of the City Council or the commissioners and chair people, they wanted to know what was going to happen with these projects. And that’s really why I’m running: to complete that.”
Scott announced during her father’s early-May funeral in Atlanta that she planned to run in the special election to complete his term. She has cast herself as the candidate best positioned to complete her father’s unfinished work, particularly his outstanding federal funding requests.
Her campaign noted she worked alongside her father for more than two decades, playing an active role in his campaign operations, fundraising, constituent outreach and community engagement.
Her runoff opponent, Blair, was elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education in 2018 and became board chairman in 2021.
According to Blair’s campaign website, the former high school math teacher earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in policy, organization and leadership from Stanford University.
Blair was the only special-election candidate who also competed in the regular May primary for the full term. He finished third in that race with approximately 12%.
Regardless of party affiliation, all candidates appeared together on one special-election ballot Tuesday. Georgia law allows a candidate who receives more than 50% to win outright, but sends the two leading candidates to a runoff when no one reaches that mark.
Six names appeared on the ballot, although Democrat Tony Brown was disqualified after the check he submitted for the $5,220 qualifying fee bounced, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.
The winner of the August runoff will add another Democratic vote to a narrowly divided House. Republicans officially hold 218 seats, compared with 212 Democrats and four vacancies, while independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California continues to caucus with Republicans despite defecting from the GOP earlier this year.
Once the Georgia winner is sworn in, Democrats would hold 213 seats, compared with a 219-member Republican-aligned bloc.
The 13th District includes portions of Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry and Newton counties, along with all of Rockdale County. David Scott carried the district with approximately 72% of the vote in 2024. In the presidential race that same year, then-Vice President Kamala Harris received roughly 71% of the district’s vote, compared with about 28% for President Donald Trump.
