Georgia Congressman David Scott, a Democrat who represented the state’s 13th Congressional District for over two decades, died on April 22, 2026, at the age of 80. His office described the passing as “unexpected.” Just the day before, Scott had been on the floor of the House of Representatives casting a vote. One day later, he was gone.
Scott had been in elected office for roughly 50 years. He started in the Georgia state House in the mid-1970s, moved to the state Senate, and then won a seat in the U.S. Congress in 2002. He never stopped running. In fact, he had just filed paperwork to seek a 13th term, even as a crowded field of primary challengers was lining up against him. The primary was scheduled for May 19.
His death leaves a vacancy in a chamber where every single seat matters, and it leaves behind a legacy that stretches from rural Georgia farms to the halls of historically Black colleges across the South.
From Aynor, South Carolina to the U.S. Capitol
David Albert Scott was born on June 27, 1945, in Aynor, South Carolina, a tiny rural town. He was born into the era of Jim Crow segregation. His childhood was anything but settled. At age 5, he moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, to live with his paternal grandparents. At 10, he spent a year on his maternal grandmother’s farm back in South Carolina. Eventually, he was reunited with his parents in Scarsdale, New York, where they worked as in-home workers for a wealthy family.
In the 2006 book “Politics in America,” Scott reflected on that upbringing, saying he learned early “how to have confidence in myself and how to get along with people who don’t look like me.” That line says a lot about how he carried himself through five decades of public life.
Scott graduated from Florida A&M University, one of the largest historically Black university campuses in the country. He then earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1969. After settling in Atlanta, he opened a billboard advertising company with his wife, Alfredia Aaron Scott.
A Connection to Hank Aaron
Here’s a detail that surprises a lot of people: David Scott was the brother-in-law of baseball legend Hank Aaron. Scott’s wife, Alfredia, was Aaron’s younger sister. That family connection, along with the support of civil rights leader Andrew Young, helped launch Scott’s political career in Georgia.
Scott got his start in politics as a staffer on Andrew Young’s 1972 congressional campaign. Young went on to become Atlanta’s mayor and a United Nations ambassador under President Jimmy Carter. Scott also advised Carter himself during Carter’s time as Georgia governor in the early 1970s. By 1974, Scott was running for office himself, winning a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. He was sworn in the following year.
First Black Chair of the House Agriculture Committee
Scott’s biggest claim to fame in Washington was becoming the first African American chairman of the powerful House Agriculture Committee in 2021. That post gave him enormous influence over farm policy, food programs, and federal support for rural America. For a guy who spent a year on his grandmother’s farm as a kid, the position felt personal.
One of his most notable accomplishments came in the 2018 Farm Bill, when Scott secured $80 million in funding for 19 historically Black 1890s land-grant colleges and universities. Those schools, founded in the years after the Civil War, have long been underfunded compared to their counterparts. Scott made it a personal mission to change that.
Congressman Sanford Bishop, an Albany Democrat, said Scott used his platform to fight for institutions like Fort Valley State University in Georgia and for disadvantaged farmers. Bishop called Scott’s devotion to the agricultural community “personal and persistent.”
He also worked on racial equity provisions in farm legislation. He pushed for a measure aimed at supporting distressed USDA borrowers, many of whom were Black farmers who had been discriminated against for decades. That provision went through some changes in later legislation, but the intent behind it was something Scott championed loudly.
A Contested Final Chapter
The last couple of years were rough. Scott’s colleagues in the Democratic caucus ousted him from his leadership role on the Agriculture Committee after the 2024 election. The reason, though nobody said it in so many words, was clear: concerns about his age, his declining ability to be present, and his missed votes.
He had become wheelchair-bound. Voters in his district were openly expressing discomfort about whether he could still do the job. A CBS News report from November 2025 detailed concerns about his voting record and whether he truly represented the ideals of the people in Georgia’s 13th District.
Despite all of that, Scott refused to step aside. He filed to run again, qualifying at the state Capitol in March while using a wheelchair. He was facing at least a half dozen challengers in the Democratic primary, including Everton Blair Jr., the former Gwinnett County Board of Education chairman; Georgia State Rep. Jasmine Clark; and, in a truly only-in-Georgia twist, Dr. Heavenly Kimes from the reality show “Married to Medicine.”
There was real pressure on him to “pass the torch,” as Roll Call put it. He didn’t want to. He was a man who had been in politics since Gerald Ford was president, and letting go was never part of his vocabulary.
Colleagues Remember a Man of Dignity
Reactions from Washington came quickly and crossed party lines. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Scott “a trailblazer who served the district that he represented admirably” and who “rose up from humble beginnings.” House Speaker Mike Johnson also confirmed the death and offered condolences.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, called Scott “a champion for so many communities, especially our agriculture industry.” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens called him “a tireless advocate” who served tens of thousands of Georgians through years of job fairs and community outreach.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, offered condolences on Capitol Hill and said he had literally just been with Scott the day before. “I was just with him yesterday,” Meeks said. That detail hits harder when you know Scott was gone less than 24 hours later.
Former Congressman Buddy Darden, who served with Scott in both the Georgia legislature and the U.S. House, offered maybe the most telling tribute. “The David Scott I met in the Georgia Legislature was the same David Scott I served with in the Congress and the same David Scott I continued to know up until the time of his death,” Darden said. “He treated everybody with respect, treated everybody the same and was not a respecter of wealth.”
State Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat, remembered Scott’s stubbornness in the best possible sense. “I would say the lesson of David Scott’s public service is to persevere,” she said. “He would stay like a dog with a bone on his issue, and every time he saw you, he would be working on it.”
What Happens to His Seat Now
Scott’s death creates an immediate political puzzle. Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, which covers parts of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, and Henry counties, now has no representative. Governor Kemp would likely need to call a special election to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the current term. But there’s also the already scheduled primary on May 19, plus a general election in November to determine who will serve the district for the 2027 to 2029 term. A spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed that details had not yet been announced.
The math in the House makes every vacancy count. At the time of Scott’s death, Republicans held 217 seats, Democrats had 212, there was one independent, and five seats were already vacant. Adding Scott’s vacant seat to the pile, and coming just one day after the resignation of Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Democrats were watching their numbers shrink at a particularly bad time.
Scott became the fifth member of the House to die during the current 119th Congress, and the fourth Democrat. That’s a grim number for a legislative session that’s barely gotten started.
The White House Responds
The White House lowered its flags to half-staff following the announcement. Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia said simply, “The State of Georgia is a better place thanks to the service of Congressman Scott.”
UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, released a statement calling Scott “a steadfast champion for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Lodriguez Murray, UNCF’s Senior Vice President for Public Policy, said, “Like over 40% of all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressman Scott was an HBCU graduate from Florida A&M University. His position leading the Agriculture Committee allowed him to have an outsized impact on 1890 institutions, all HBCUs and their students, and every American.”
Scott is survived by his wife Alfredia, their two adult daughters, and grandchildren. A cause of death had not been released as of the time of reporting. His office said more information would be shared in the coming days.
Fifty years is a long time to do anything. David Scott spent all of them in public service. You can argue about whether he should have stepped aside sooner, and plenty of people in his own district were making that argument. But the man cast a vote on the House floor the day before he died. Whatever else you want to say about him, he never quit.
