WASHINGTON – Longtime Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, died on April 22, a day after he’d cast a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. He was 80 years old.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, confirmed his death. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York, also offered his condolences on Capitol Hill, calling him a friend and saying he was “going to be missed.”
“I was just with him yesterday,” Meeks said. The Georgia lawmaker was running for reelection, seeking another term in the House.
Scott’s office did not immediately identify his cause of death but called it “unexpected.” Concerns about his health had spread on Capitol Hill in recent years.
“We respectfully ask that the family and his staff be afforded privacy as they grieve this incredibly difficult time,” his office said.
The congressman’s passing will further shrink Democrats’ voting members in the lower chamber and comes on the heels of the April 21 resignation of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat. Republicans still have a razor-thin majority in the chamber, with 217 GOP lawmakers, 212 Democrats, one independent and five vacancies.
Scott, who was a brother-in-law to famous baseball player Hank Aaron, served more than two decades in Congress, including as the first Black chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. Before coming to Washington, he was a member of the state legislature in Georgia for nearly three decades.
In a statement, Jon Ossoff, his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, said the congressman “devoted his life to public service and the State of Georgia.”
Georgia “is a better place thanks to the service of Congressman Scott,” he said.
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Longtime Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, dies at 80
Reporting by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
