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Marcye Scott, the daughter of late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., and former Gwinnett County school board chair Everton Blair advanced Tuesday to an Aug. 25 runoff in the special election to serve the remainder of the late Congressman Scott’s term before the winner of November’s regular election takes office for a full-term beginning in January.

Neither candidate captured the 50% majority needed to win the seat outright, according to the Associated Press, which called the race around a quarter to 9 o’clock East Coast time. Scott had received 47.5% of the vote and Blair had received 36.1% when the race was called around 8:45 p.m. eastern, with 85% of the expected vote counted. Republican Caesar Gonzales was far behind in third with just 8.5%.

The runoff will determine who serves the final weeks of the late-Congressman’s term in the heavily Democratic metro Atlanta 13th Congressional District following his death in April at age 80. It will not determine who represents the district for the next full two-year term beginning in January; voters held a separate primary for that term in May, with the general election set for Nov. 3.

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Democratic state Rep. Jasmine Clark won the regularly scheduled May primary for the full term with roughly 56% of the vote and will face Republican Jonathan Chavez in November. Blair, the only special-election candidate who also competed in that regular May primary, finished third with approximately 12%.

Regardless of party affiliation, all candidates appeared together on one special-election ballot Tuesday. Georgia law allows a candidate who receives more than 50% to win outright, but sends the two leading candidates to a runoff when no one reaches that mark. Six names appeared on the ballot, although Democrat Tony Brown was disqualified after the check he submitted for the $5,220 qualifying fee bounced, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, which indicated votes cast for Brown would not count.

The remaining field included Scott, Blair Gonzales, Attorney Carlos Moore and Republican candidate Fayth Park.

Scott announced during her father’s early-May funeral in Atlanta that she planned to run in the special election to complete his term. Scott has cast herself as the candidate best positioned to complete her father’s unfinished work, particularly his outstanding federal funding requests, with her campaign noting how she worked alongside her father for more than two decades, playing an active role in his campaign operations, fundraising, constituent outreach and community engagement.

Marcye Scott, daughter of the late-Rep. David Scott, campaigns with voters amid her bid to replace her father. (Marcye Scott for Congress)

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«Right after my dad passed, a lot of the City Council or the commissioners and chair people, they wanted to know what was going to happen with these projects,» Scott said following her father’s death, according the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. «And that’s really why I’m running: to complete that.»

The late-Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., seen using a cane on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. in 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Her runoff opponent, Blair, was elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education in 2018 and was elected board chairman a few years later in 2021.

According to Blair’s campaign website, the former high school math teacher earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in policy, organization and leadership from Stanford University. Blair’s campaign has highlighted that education-policy background and his prior elected service on the Gwinnett County school board.

Everton Blair, candidate for Congress in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, is seen in a photo from his campaign website talking to voters on the campaign trail. (Everton Blair for Congress)

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The winner of the August runoff will add another Democratic vote to a narrowly divided House. Republicans officially hold 218 seats, compared with 212 Democrats and four vacancies, while independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California continues to caucus with Republicans despite defecting from the GOP earlier this year. Once the Georgia winner is sworn in, Democrats would hold 213 seats, compared with a 219-member Republican-aligned bloc.

The 13th District includes portions of Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry and Newton counties, along with all of Rockdale County. David Scott carried the district with approximately 72% of the vote in 2024. In the presidential race that same year, then-Vice President Kamala Harris received roughly 71% of the district’s vote, compared with about 28% for President Donald Trump.

A man has been arrested after one of the world’s most famous Catholic pilgrimage sites was vandalized and partially set on fire, with a statue of the Virgin Mary defaced and the words «Devil in a skirt» scrawled across its pedestal in black, according to reports.

Bosnian police arrested a suspect Tuesday in connection with the overnight vandalism and arson at the Shrine of Our Lady in Medjugorje, according to Vatican News.

Authorities have not released the man’s identity as investigators work to determine a motive and whether he was responsible for other incidents reported at the shrine that same night, the outlet said.

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Police were called around 4:30 a.m. on July 27 after the face and hands of the statue of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill, also known as Podbrdo, were found covered in black paint.

The pedestal at the foot of the statue was spray-painted with the English phrase «Devil in a skirt,» while other graffiti and the statue’s hands were painted black.

An outdoor altar nearby was also set on fire near St. James Church, the outlet said.

Surveillance footage reportedly at that location showed a man pouring what investigators believe was gasoline onto the altar before setting it ablaze. The fire was extinguished.

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Police were first called around 4:30 a.m. on July 27 after the face and hands of the statue of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill, also known as Podbrdo, were found covered in black paint. (Associated Press)

The two attacks came just days before Medjugorje’s annual youth prayer festival, which is expected to draw more than 50,000 pilgrims from around the world.

In a statement Tuesday, the Medjugorje Parish Office condemned the vandalism and urged Catholics to respond with «prayer, fasting, and forgiveness» rather than anger.

«It is with great sadness that we received the news of the act of vandalism,» the parish said.

Church officials also said cleanup and repairs began immediately so the damaged prayer sites could once again welcome pilgrims.

«The affected areas are being cleaned and restored as quickly as possible,» the parish said, thanking volunteers for helping preserve the shrine as «a place of encounter with God, a place of peace.»

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Church officials also said cleanup and repairs began immediately so the damaged prayer sites could once again welcome pilgrims. (Associated Press)

Rather than calling for retribution, the parish urged the faithful to pray for those responsible.

«We pray for the conversion of the hearts of those who committed this act,» the statement said, asking that God «touch them with His grace and lead them on the path of goodness.»

The parish also appealed for peace, encouraging Catholics «not to return evil for evil,» but instead to bear witness through «love, forgiveness and hope.»

Despite the attack, officials said the shrine remains open, and its regular schedule of Mass and prayer services will continue as planned.

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Located about 85 miles southwest of Sarajevo, Medjugorje became one of the world’s best-known Catholic pilgrimage destinations after six children and teenagers reported seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary there in 1981.

The Vatican gave the green light for Catholics to continue flocking to Medjugorje offering its approval for devotion at one of the most contested sites of Roman Catholic practice in recent years, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.