Elderly Georgia Democrat Rep. David Scott has made no public appearance for several weeks, and his younger Republican rival wants to know where he is hiding.
“He’s been missing — the last time anybody has seen him was in September in Congress … [and] he’s not been campaigning,” GOP candidate Caesar Gonzales told Breitbart News.
Scott, aged 77, has represented the poor and majority-black 13th Congressional District to the south and west of Atlanta since 2003. Roughly 60 percent of the residents are black, one-quarter are white, and 10 percent are Latino.
Gonzales continued:
The [September] appearances that he made were very tightly managed. You could not go in there unless you were invited. Only certain members of the press were allowed, and only certain people could take pictures. … He’s very feeble and he’s been in declining health, and in that condition, you don’t want your constituents to see you.
Scott’s disappearance has been noted by local media and the local Clayton County GOP — partly because it might mean that the Democratic district will elect a Republican for 2023, by default.
Scott was born in 1945. His campaign did not return messages from Breitbart News.
“Nobody has been able to find David Scott,” said radio host Scott “Rhino” Rheinhold on October 28.
The local chatter is that “either David Scott had passed away, or that he was in hospice,” Rheinhold said on Atlanta’s 106.3 Xtra. He described a strange episode where he called Scott’s campaign and asked to speak to the soft-spoken candidate:
Obviously, I’ve heard him many times, and the phone rings [back]. I pick up [and hear] “Hey, Scott! Rhino! Oh, everything’s good! I’m doing great. Everything’s good.” …
I don’t even know if this was really David Scott calling me, to be honest, [but it] set my radar off because he said one thing to me that was a little weird. I said “Are you doing any campaign events? … Are you going to be out doing events? Where have you been? [The voice responded] “I’ve been out! I’ve been campaigning, man. I’ve been putting yard signs everywhere”… So at this point, I’m like, “Wow, that really didn’t sound like David [Scott].”
“I’m willing to put up an extra T-shirt … [to anyone who] can get us video proof or picture proof of David Scott walking around campaigning, or being in events,” Rheinhold added.
Scott has not appeared recently on the campaign’s sites, such as Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter. There is a scripted video posted on October 29 for an event on October 28. But it is not clear when the recording was made.
Meanwhile, Gonzales is still running for the seat — which he may win if Scott’s health makes him an ineligible candidate.
His website describes him as a great match for the poor district:
Caesar Gonzales lived his childhood in a boy’s home. As a first-generation American, Caesar struggled with obstacles, including poverty, crime, and child abuse. As a 15-year-old misled youth, Caesar was introduced to a motorcycle repair school which led to a life he could have never dreamed of. Caesar Gonzales wants to give the same opportunities to the youth in the 13th District.
After a career in motorcycle racing for Kawasaki and Ducati, he went to college in 2010 and landed an engineering job at Elon Musk’s Space-X rocket company:
In 2018, Caesar received the opportunity to work for Space X. As an engineer and technician, he worked on projects like the Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon-9 booster rocket. He later worked for Blue Origin at their launch facility in Van Horn, Texas.
Georgians in the 13th district should vote for him, said Gonzales, because
I’ve lived in the community for 25 years. I’m well aware of the issues that are plaguing the community — a drop in median incomes, rise in crime rate, great loss of opportunity.
My own personal story: I came from the inner city, grew up in a boy’s home as a ward of the state. Fast forward to the present: I’m an engineer. I worked for SpaceX, I worked for Blue Origin, so I know what it takes to bring a community out of that decline. I use my own experiences as an example — the cornerstone, my campaign is [the need for more] vocational training.
Gonzalez also wants to help fix the nation’s migration problem.
“We need to secure the border,” Gonzales told Breitbart. Once the border is secure, employers will have no choice but to hire and train Americans, he said.
A tight labor market will also help give “the people an incentive to pursue these positions that are available.”
He continued:
I went to a number of companies locally that are hungry for skilled workers, and they are just none [available]. I said, “What about [graduates from] the technical colleges?” They said the local technical colleges do not teach the skill sets that these businesses need.
“Any manufacturer or any business, when they look to locate into a certain area, the number one thing they look for in a skilled worker face to support their business,” he said.
Those skills, he said, will help locals keep pace with rising real estate prices. “People are being displaced because of the rise in property values. If you train your people from within a community, it staves off that gentrification,” he said.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.