Everton Blair won the runoff to serve the rest of David Scott’s term in Georgia’s 13th District, with NBC News projecting him the winner on Tuesday. Blair defeated Marcye Scott after trailing her in the first round, turning a close first pass into a comeback that sends him to Washington for what is expected to be a short stay.
The vote matters now because the runoff decided who fills the seat left open after David Scott died at age 80 on April 22, ending more than two decades in Congress. Scott had been the first Black chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and the contest to replace him drew attention well beyond the district because it also shaped the balance of power in the House in the near term.
Blair’s margin was narrow but decisive. In Tuesday’s runoff, he led 53% to 47% with most of the expected vote tallied, a reversal from last month, when Marcye Scott had led him 46% to 38% in the first round. The two advanced from a crowded all-party special primary election in July after no candidate won a majority, leaving the runoff as the only race that mattered for the unfinished term.
His path was built around an agenda that leaned hard left for Georgia’s 13th District, a deep-blue district in the Atlanta suburbs. Blair backed a tax on households making over $50 million, Medicare for All, universal childcare and massive federal investments in clean energy, positions that helped him consolidate support as the field narrowed. Marcye Scott, by contrast, cast her bid as a continuation of her father’s work and said she would ensure the work already underway continues.
The upset carries an added wrinkle: Blair had already lost the regularly scheduled primary to State Rep. Jasmine Clark, who is now the heavy favorite to win the November election. That means Blair’s time in the seat is likely to be brief, but it also means the special election has delivered a temporary representative before the district chooses a longer-term one. Once Everton Blair and Aisha Wahab are sworn in, Republicans’ House majority will stand at 218-214, with one independent and two vacancies.
The final question is not who will hold the seat for long. It is how much a short-term win can matter in a district where the next, more durable decision has already tilted toward Clark.
