Former State Sen. Fort Challenges U.S. Rep. Scott in Democratic Primary
(APN) ATLANTA – Former State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), a progressive champion who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Atlanta in 2017 with the backing of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is challenging U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-GA) for the Democratic nomination for Georgia’s Thirteenth Congressional District.
“We can do better. We don’t have to settle for someone that votes with the Republicans, who collaborates with the Payday lenders and Wall Street, someone who votes bad on the environment,” former Sen. Fort told Atlanta Progressive News.
Former State Sen. Fort served in the State Senate 1997 to 2017, in the 39th District seat currently held by State Sen. Sonya Halpern (D-Atlanta).
“I’m a fighter who gets things done,” Fort said.
U.S. Rep. Scott, a centrist Democrat, has held the Thirteenth Congressional District seat since 2003.
As previously reported by APN, State Sen. Donzella James (D-Atlanta) ran as a progressive challenger to U.S. Rep. Scott twice, first in 2006 and again in 2008.
Remarkably, in 2020, now-Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Waites (Post 3 at-large) almost forced U.S. Rep. Scott into a Run-off Election, but Scott narrowly prevailed in the Democratic Primary without a Run-off with 51.4 percent of the vote upon the final tally.
Fort said he wants the voters of the Thirteenth Congressional District to know “they have a better alternative to David Scott.”
“David Scott unfortunately has supported bad policy. We don’t have to settle for someone who votes, endorses, and gives donations to Republicans,” Fort said.
“Congressman David Scott quickly revealed his ideological colors after being elected to Congress in 2002, joining the conservative Blue Dog Caucus and immediately breaking party ranks on critical issues,” according to the website Progressive Scorecard.
https://www.progressivescore.com/legislator-database/david-scott
“In Scott’s first term, he was one of only 7 Democrats to vote for the Bush Tax Cuts, was one of just 16 Democrats to vote for Bush’s Medicare Part D legislation, and supported a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage,” the website notes.
“Scott’s environmental record also raises some major red flags. Though a supporter of a carbon tax, Scott has voted with Republicans to fast-track the Keystone XL pipeline and against environmental protection on clean water standards, nuclear storage, and pesticide pollution,” the website states.
“He co-sponsored seven bills to deregulate Wall Street, the same banks that were at the forefront of predatory lending,” Fort said.
“This is a progressive district, 75 percent Democratic, overwhelmingly African American,” Fort said of Georgia’s Thirteenth Congressional District.
The District includes part of Fulton County including parts of College Park, East Point, the City of South Fulton, Union City, Fairburn, and Palmetto; along with parts of Cobb, Clayton, Douglas, Fayette, and Henry Counties.
“The District is more Democratic than it was,” Fort said.
Part of the Democratic area of Cobb County in the Thirteenth Congressional District went to the Fourteenth Congressional District currently represented by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), as part of Congressional reapportionment following the 2020 Census.
“We can do better than someone who is the Joe Manchin of Georgia,” Fort said, comparing Scott to the Democratic U.S. Senator from West Virginia who has blocked much of President Joe Biden’s key legislative agenda.
Scott was ranked as the eighteenth most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy.
“We can be better with a real Democrat who supports Medicare for All,” Fort said.
“The overwhelming majority of people in this District support Medicare for All in the midst of a pandemic, it’s all the more obvious that we need a health care system where no one is left out,” Fort said.
“I want people to have the same health care that Members of Congress have. I believe health is a human right,” Fort said.
“I believe in the Green New Deal, especially where the Green New Deal trains people, hopefully young people of color, for green jobs,” he said.
“We know districts like District Thirteen suffer from the impacts of climate change more than other areas because when you have urban areas – climate change, global warming is intensified where you have built up areas,” he said.
“I believe that we need a fifteen dollar minimum wage. I think it’s a scandal we haven’t raised the minimum wage in decades,” Fort said.
“The fourth thing is voting rights,” he said.
Fort has been endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America, Blue America, and Nina Turner.
(END / Copyright Atlanta Progressive News / 2022)