6 challengers seek to fill empty seat in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District after Rep. David Scott’s death

Update: Hours after publication, Rep. David Scott died at age 80. This story has been updated.

Entering the beginning of the 2026 campaign season, Cook Partisan Voter Index ranked Georgia’s 13th the 50th-most Democratic district in the country. The district covers a swath of Metro Atlanta east and southeast of The Perimeter.

Incumbent Rep. David Scott, age 80, was running for reelection, but died, leaving the field open.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia upheld redistricting maps following the 2020 census, first enacted for the 2024 elections. It was the fourth redistricting since Scott’s first election to the House in 2002—the year the district first gained a seat. The district shifted to run east from Jonesboro to Covington and then north to Lawrenceville. Previously, the district wrapped from Stockbridge in the east to Chattahoochee Hills in the west, then jutting northeast to Smyrna.

Jonathan Chavez is running on the Republican ticket again after netting 28.2% of the vote against Scott in the 2024 General Election.

After 28 years in the Georgia legislature, Scott was four years away from matching that tenure in Congress.

On his website, Scott promoted congressional accomplishments, such as:

• a firm commitment to NATO and Israel
• multi-state insurance licensing for agents and brokers
• federal dairy reform
• agriculture-focused scholarships at HBCUs
• National Heritage Area designation for Arabia Mountain
• adding Father’s Day to the Flag Code 
• tuition repayment programs for VA workers, prosecutors and public defenders

Six candidates are looking to fill the District 13 seat in the Democratic primary on May 19:

• Jasmine Clark has represented the Lilburn and Mountain Park area—District 108—in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2019. She has been a professor of nursing at Emory University, which significantly informs her campaign on its top issues, such as public health, reproductive justice, Medicare and medical research. The crypto-currency backed political action group Protect Progress spent over $1 million in media buys, direct mailers and printing production to support Clark, according to April FEC filings.
• Everton Blair Jr. represented District 4 of Gwinnett County Public Schools’ board from 2018 to 2022 and would be the first openly gay Black man in Congress, if elected. He touts experience as a high school teacher as a guiding compass for education as a core issue, seeking to help students disenfranchised from cuts to education budgets.
• Jeffree Fauntleroy Sr. draws from six years of experience on the Atlantic City Board of Education and a career as a pastor, a 25-year police officer and a union organizer. His priorities include economic development, diversion programs, universal health care, affordable housing, abolishing ICE and ending forever wars and genocide.
• Emanuel Jones boasts more than three decades as a small-business owner and 22 years as District 10 Georgia State Senator, currently representing an area stretching from Stockbridge to North Druid Hills. His campaign emphasizes affordability and economic opportunity.
• Heavenly Kimes withdrew from the District 93 Georgia House race to run for this office instead. She is the founder and CEO of Heavenly Dental Associates Inc. and was on the reality show “Married to Medicine.” Campaign issues include health care access, transit, environmental justice, education and criminal justice reform.
• Joe Lester practices dentistry and has campaign experience with a loss in the 2022 Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 43. Passion points for him are education, immigration, Social Security and defending democracy.

Constituent Sarah Raud, of Jonesboro, identifies as a progressive leftist who has organized in the area. In judging these candidates and their priorities, Raud told Atlanta Community Press Collective: “My top priorities at the voting booth are income equality, housing, sustainability and human rights.”