A 79-year-old House Democrat is facing his first major primary challenger after his party removed him as their House Agricultural Committee leader.
Democratic Georgia state Sen. Emanuel Jones filed paperwork last week to challenge Rep. David Scott (D-GA) in the 2026 primary election for Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, which covers portions of the Atlanta metro area.
Scott served as chairman of the House Agricultural Committee from 2021 to 2023 before a stint as ranking member for the next two years. Democrats chose Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN), who is over 2 decades younger than Scott, as ranking member in his place.
The House member from Georgia has served the chamber for over 20 years but has faced severe criticism for his age and health in recent months. House Democrats on the Agriculture Committee expressed concerns about his ability to communicate with them over strategy before his removal as ranking member.
Jones, a 65-year-old member of the Georgia State Senate, has served his state for 2 decades. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would run regardless of whether Scott decided to or not, adding that he heard a rumor Scott was considering stepping down before his term ends.
Federal Election Commission records indicate Scott filed for the 2026 election several days after winning reelection last November. The filing does not prevent him from stepping down before the election but indicates the congressman’s intent is to run for reelection again.
Scott reportedly called a news photographer an “a–hole” in December 2024 for taking his picture outside the Capitol as he was being wheeled in on a wheelchair.
“Who gave you the right to take my picture, a–hole?” he said.
A spokesperson for Scott told the photographer to refrain from taking pictures of him “as we’re trying to get into the Capitol” and that they would be reaching out to his editor.
Scott will host a meet-and-greet this week at a senior center in Snellville, Georgia, giving the public an opportunity to see how the congressman is doing.
A prospective challenger to Scott would have difficulty beating the incumbent congressman. Scott has a stranglehold over the heavily blue district in the general election and has still captured a majority of the vote in each Democratic primary of the last 10 years.
He won 57.6% of the vote in his 2024 primary, with the next closest vote-getter coming in at just 11.6%.
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Scott is hardly the only House lawmaker who has been under fire for their age over the past year.
Former Republican Rep. Kay Granger declined to run for reelection in 2024 before it was reported that she had been staying in a retirement community specializing in memory care for months during her House term. Granger didn’t vote in the House for the last few months of her congressional career.
