Marcye Scott, the daughter of the late Democratic Congressman David Scott of Georgia, and former Gwinnett County school board chair Everton Blair will meet in an August runoff after the special election to fill the remainder of Scott's term failed to produce a winner with over 50 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. With 85 percent of the expected vote counted, Scott had received 47.5 percent and Blair had received 36.1 percent, forcing the contest to a second round. Republican Caesar Gonzales trailed far behind at 8.5 percent, with two other minor candidates accounting for the remainder.
The runoff, scheduled for Aug. 25, will determine who serves the final weeks of the late congressman's term in Georgia's 13th Congressional District, a heavily Democratic metro Atlanta seat that David Scott held since 2003 until his death in April at age 80. The winner will take office only for the remainder of the current term, as a separate regularly scheduled primary and general election are already underway for the full two-year term beginning in January. Democratic state Representative Jasmine Clark won the May primary for the full term with roughly 56 percent of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November's general election.
Georgia law permits a candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright, but if no candidate reaches that threshold, the two leading vote-getters advance to a runoff. Tuesday's ballot contained six names, 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, which stated votes cast for Brown would not count. The remaining field included Scott, Blair, Gonzales, attorney Carlos Moore, and Republican candidate Fayth Park.
Marcye Scott announced her candidacy during her father's funeral in early May in Atlanta, positioning herself as the candidate best suited to complete his unfinished work, particularly regarding outstanding federal funding requests. Her campaign noted that she worked alongside her father for more than two decades, playing an active role in his campaign operations, fundraising, constituent outreach, and community engagement. "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," Scott told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after her father's death. "And that's really why I'm running: to complete that."
Her runoff opponent, Everton Blair, was elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education in 2018 and became board chairman in 2021. A former high school math teacher, Blair holds 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. His campaign has emphasized his education-policy background and his prior elected service on the school board.
The winner of the August runoff will add another Democratic vote to a narrowly divided House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold 218 seats to Democrats' 212, with four vacancies. Independent Representative Kevin Kiley of California continues to caucus with Republicans despite having defected from the GOP earlier this year. Once the Georgia special election winner is sworn in, Democrats would hold 213 seats, compared with a 219-member Republican-aligned bloc.
The 13th Congressional 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 percent of the vote in 2024. In the presidential race the same year, then-Vice President Kamala Harris received roughly 71 percent of the district's vote, compared with about 28 percent for President Donald Trump, underscoring the heavily Democratic lean of the constituency.
