The Democrat set to replace the late U.S. Rep. David Scott in Congress says defending his district’s Black majority from anticipated Republican-led redistricting efforts is now one of his top priorities.
Educator Everton Blair defeated Scott’s daughter, Marcye Scott, Tuesday night in a runoff election matchup that decided who will fill the remainder of David Scott’s term ending in January following his death at age 80 in April.
Blair previously told Capital B Atlanta that raising the federal minimum wage, promoting workforce development programs, and boosting support for small businesses were his main goals in Congress.
He’s since added defending Black voting power in Georgia’s 13th District following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais.
The landmark case nullified Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and effectively made it legal for state lawmakers to draw political maps that dilute Black voting power as long as that’s not their explicitly stated purpose. Republican-led state legislatures across the country have been redrawing their maps to eliminate majority-Black and Democratic districts in response.
In June, the GOP-led Georgia General Assembly nixed plans to redraw the Peach State’s political maps in defiance of President Donald Trump and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. State party leaders told reporters at the time that they want to give the courts more time to adjudicate pending redistricting-related legal cases before redrawing maps that wouldn’t take effect until 2028. They’re expected to revisit the issue sometime after November’s pivotal midterm election cycle.
In response to Callais, a panel of three federal appellate court judges on Tuesday vacated a 2023 ruling that determined Georgia’s 2021 political maps diluted Black voting power in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In their opinion, the appellate judges determined that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Callais changes the framework under which the 2023 ruling was issued in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Black Georgians constitute roughly 51% of voters in Blair’s district, which sits east of Atlanta and includes parts of Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, and Newton counties. Blair expects it will be targeted for redistricting in the future.
“We know that Republicans at the state level are trying to thwart the representation of this district and dilute the power of Black voters,” Blair told Capital B Atlanta during a Tuesday night phone interview from his home in Lilburn. “I want us to have the most representative democracy possible. And that requires me … to fight to make sure that Democrats have a plan to reinstate the Voting Rights Act and to defeat and defend any efforts that Republicans take to gerrymander us and to do racist things.”
Blair received nearly 54% of unofficial votes cast in the race to Marcye Scott’s 46% vote share, with 100% of precincts reporting, according to the secretary of state’s website.
The 33-year-old educator is the former chair of the Gwinnett County School Board. He holds degrees from Stanford and Harvard universities and currently serves as vice president of School Board Partners, a nonprofit that trains school board members nationwide.
Blair said his plans after his term ends in January remain unclear. The winner of the November general election matchup between Democrat Jasmine Clark and Republican Jonathan Chavez will determine who represents District 13 for the next two years.
Clark is favored to win in the dark-blue district that hasn’t elected a Republican since its creation in 2003. Blair said he plans to work with whoever wins the election in November to ensure his constituents have the best representation possible.
“I’m ready to lead and I’m ready to work,” he said. “We got too much on the line and too much to do.”
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