5/5

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. 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. With friends like Scott who needs Republicans.

The passage of time has not improved Scott's record. Despite repeatedly voting for practically every bloated military spending bill, whenever the check comes due for expanding social services or healthcare Scott can be found parroting Republican talking points about balanced budgets. 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. Additionally, Scott is also one of the most hawkish Democrats, voting to continue our "forever wars" and the indefinite detention of American citizens.

But where David Scott really earns his place as one of the worst Democrats is his coziness with financial institutions. Scott seems to have made it his personal mission to ensure that sleazy lenders and investors are not burdened with public oversight. He is a vocal opponent of Obama's fiduciary rule on financial advisors, Dodd-Frank's stress test requirement on banks, and the independence of the CFPB. Scott was even caught in 2016 reciting word for word a speech written by pay-day lender lobbyists. With all these corporatist policy positions, it should come as no surprise that Scott is one of the largest recipients of Wall Street campaign cash.

Moving on from the grotesquely corrupt to politically absurd, Scott has somehow suffered zero repercussions from party leadership when he goes out of his way to back Republicans for Congress. In 2016 Scott endorsed Senator Johnny Isakson for reelection and made a $1,000 contribution to Rep. Mia Love, both of who were facing stiff Democratic opposition. It's one thing to work with Republicans on legislation; it's a whole other thing to give them money and endorsements.

Scott's majority-black Atlanta based district routinely votes for Democrat's by nearly 3-to-1 margins, meaning the winner of the primary here is essentially the next member of Congress. Scott's conservative stances have attracted multiple primary challenges over the years. In his most recent primary, Scott only pulled in 53%. This unimpressive result is sure to paint a big target on Scott's back, and progressives should be fervently laying the groundwork to mount another challenge.