Rep. David Scott, Georgia Democrat and longtime congressman, dies at 80

Rep. David Scott, the Georgia Democrat who spent decades building influence from the state legislature to the House Agriculture Committee, died at 80, leaving behind a vacancy in one of metro Atlanta’s most reliably Democratic seats. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, announced Scott’s death as the longtime congressman’s record as a Black Southern Democrat came into sharp focus: a lawmaker who helped shape Georgia politics, farm policy and the House Democratic Caucus over a half-century in public life.

Scott was born June 27, 1945, in Aynor, South Carolina, and rose through Georgia politics with unusual staying power. He served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1974 to 1982, then in the Georgia State Senate from 1982 to 2002, before winning election to Congress in 2002 and representing Georgia’s 13th Congressional District from Jan. 3, 2003, until his death. His district covered Cobb, Clayton, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton and Henry counties, anchoring his power in a fast-growing slice of metro Atlanta that has become central to Democratic politics in Georgia.

Scott’s national clout was deepest in agriculture. He was a senior member of both the House Agriculture Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, and he chaired the Agriculture Committee in the 117th Congress. That made him the first African American and the first Georgian to lead the panel, a milestone that reflected both his longevity and the shifting face of Southern Democratic representation in Washington. For Black voters across Georgia and beyond, Scott’s ascent carried symbolic weight; for farmers, food policy advocates and rural counties tied to Georgia’s agricultural economy, it gave the state a powerful voice in federal debates over crops, commodity support and nutrition programs.

His death changes the math in Atlanta’s congressional delegation, even if the district remains safely Democratic. Georgia’s 13th District loses a veteran incumbent with deep institutional memory, and House Democrats lose one of their more experienced Southern lawmakers at a time when committee leadership and regional relationships matter. Scott was still active in office in March 2026, opposing the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 on March 5 and asking for nearly $32 million in community project funding priorities on March 27. His last weeks in office underscored how central he remained to the district he had served for more than two decades.