Reinforcements are coming for the radical wing of the Democratic Party.
A progressive Democrat has pulled off an upset victory in a Georgia special election, defeating the daughter of the late congressman who previously represented the district.
The result will also further narrow Republicans’ already razor-thin majority in the House when the winner is sworn into office.
Former Gwinnett County School Board Chairman Everton Blair won Tuesday’s special election runoff to serve the remainder of the term of the late Rep. David Scott in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, defeating Scott’s daughter, Marcye Scott.
NBC News projected Blair as the winner after he built a 53 percent to 47 percent advantage with most of the expected vote counted.
The victory represented a significant turnaround from the first round of voting in July.
Scott led Blair 46 percent to 38 percent during the initial all-party special election, but neither candidate received the majority necessary to avoid a runoff.
The two Democrats therefore advanced to Tuesday’s head-to-head contest, where Blair was able to reverse Scott’s eight-point first-round advantage.
Blair previously served as chairman of the Gwinnett County School Board and campaigned on a number of progressive economic and social policies.
Among his proposals were Medicare for All, universal childcare and a tax targeting households earning more than $50 million.
Blair also called for massive federal investments in clean energy similar to proposals associated with the Green New Deal.
Scott, meanwhile, centered much of her campaign on continuing the work and legacy of her late father.
She pledged to “ensure the work already underway” for residents of the district would continue if voters elected her to finish his term.
David Scott represented the Atlanta-area district for more than two decades after first winning election to Congress in 2002.
Marcye Scott had hoped to become another congressional daughter to succeed her father following his death.
Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva accomplished that last year when she won the special election to replace her late father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva.
Grijalva is now seeking election to a full two-year term this November.
Blair’s victory comes shortly after another progressive Democrat, Aisha Wahab, won the special election for the California congressional seat formerly represented by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Wahab and Blair are expected to join Congress once they are formally sworn into office.
Their arrivals will have an immediate impact on the already extraordinarily narrow balance of power in the House.
Once both Democrats take their seats, Republicans are expected to hold 218 seats compared with 214 Democrats, alongside one independent and two remaining vacancies.
That margin leaves House Republican leaders with little room for defections as Congress approaches the final stretch before the November midterm elections.
For Blair, however, Tuesday’s result represents an impressive political comeback after entering the runoff eight percentage points behind Scott, NBC News reported.
Instead of the late congressman’s daughter continuing the Scott family’s representation of Georgia’s 13th District, voters chose Blair to finish the remainder of the term.
Rep. David Scott died at age 80, his office confirmed in April, bringing an abrupt end to a congressional career that spanned more than two decades.
Scott, served in the U.S. House since 2003 and was seeking a 13th term representing a safely Democratic district in the Atlanta area. In recent years, he had faced calls from some colleagues and members of his party to step aside amid concerns about his health and leadership, The Washington Post reported.
Following his last reelection, House Democrats voted to remove Scott as the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. The move came after a series of health-related absences that raised concerns among colleagues about his ability to continue in the role.
Born in South Carolina, Scott was raised in Pennsylvania, New York and Florida before eventually moving to Georgia. After earning an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, he built a career in business, founding an advertising firm in Atlanta before entering politics.
