David Scott doesn't live in the new GA-13. Neither do his opponents
Longtime Congressman wages low-key campaign for twelfth term
U.S. Rep. David Scott is running for his twelfth term in Congress. But he doesn’t live in the district he’s running in.
Nor do many of his primary challengers.
The long-serving Atlanta Democrat has steadily climbed the leadership ranks on Capitol Hill, having chaired the Agriculture Committee in the previous Congress.
The boundaries of his 13th district were changed during a recent round of redistricting, shifting from the southwest metro to majority-Black suburbs and exurbs east of the capital city.
But he will not be casting a ballot for himself — just as he has been unable to do for most of his career — because he lives in the neighboring 5th district. In fact, the east Atlanta community where he resides has never been in any iteration of the district he has spent the last two decades representing.
Fortunately or unfortunately for the incumbent, many of his opponents in this month’s Democratic primary also don’t live in the new District 13. His presumed top challenger, Army veteran Marcus Flowers, previously waged a multimillion-dollar campaign against Marjorie Taylor Greene in the 14th district — more than an hour’s drive westbound on I-20.
Two other candidates, Karen René and Mark Baker, are former officeholders in Fulton County, which is no longer part of the district.
The U.S. Constitution only requires candidates for Congress to live in the state they are running to represent, so it’s not all that unusual to find a member who lives outside their district. Georgia currently has four such instances of this, including Scott.
In a political environment where voters are raising concerns about the ages of their leaders, Scott, who is 78, appears to be escaping any widespread criticism back home despite apparent concerns on the Hill. Political analysts say that voters hold their legislators to a different standard because they are not viewed in the same limelight as nationally known leaders like the President.
“So long as they’re fit for office at the time they’re campaigning, age doesn’t come up in the same way for that reason,” says Georgia State University political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis.
“It doesn't ultimately matter what [agriculture] lobbyists in DC think privately so much as what voters back home think,” added Dave Wasserman, an election analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Scott is somewhat shielded in that he's not a high-profile statewide figure who gets a ton of media attention.”
Aside from his billboards and yard signs popping up across the district, Scott’s appearances on the campaign trail thus far have been minimal. He declined an invitation to a debate with his opponents and hasn’t cut any television ads. He also rarely does interviews with local newspapers and hasn’t been spotted at many of the county party events in his reconfigured district.
With attacks on his residency and age struggling to land with voters, his challengers have instead tried drawing ideological contrasts. Scott, a former member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, has in the past broken his party on several key votes. He was one part of a small few Democrats who helped put then-President George W. Bush’s economic agenda items over the finish line.
Baker, in a swipe at the no-show Scott, called himself “an actual Democrat focused on Democratic issues.” Flowers has accused the congressman of putting the needs of special interests over the concerns of voters.
But with early voting now underway, Scott enters the contest with a hefty fundraising advantage over his opponents and is already talking about the work he looks to continue doing.
“Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” Scott said. He said he’s seeking another term to enhance funding for historically Black colleges such as Fort Valley State University, and to provide more assistance to struggling homeowners.
The winner of the primary will enter the general election as the favorite in this heavily Democratic district.