Democrat · Virginia's 3rd District · 2026
Bobby Scott
Scott grew up in Newport News, the son of a doctor and a public school teacher.
Biography
Bobby Scott grew up in Newport News with a physician father and a schoolteacher mother who expected their children to attend college.1 When Virginia resisted school integration and local schools faced possible closure, his parents sent him to high school in Massachusetts.1 His father also served on the school board.1
Scott graduated from Harvard and Boston College Law School and served in the Massachusetts National Guard and Army Reserve.2 He returned to Newport News to practice law in 1973, founded the Peninsula Legal Aid Center and became a local NAACP branch president.2
After fifteen years in Virginia's legislature, he entered Congress in 1993 and became Virginia's first Black member since Reconstruction.2 He is the senior Democrat on Education and Workforce and also serves on Budget.2 His legislation includes the Death in Custody Reporting Act, requiring reporting on people who die during arrest or in custody.2
Scott supports a higher federal minimum wage, stronger union organizing rights, college affordability and access to healthcare.3 His criminal justice approach emphasizes prevention and investments that keep young people out of prison.3 His November opponents are Republican Edwin Rivera and independents Makiba Gaines and Stephen Woll.4
Record and controversies
Harassment allegation
In December 2017, a former congressional fellow accused Scott of unwanted touching and sexual advances during her 2013 placement in his office, and said she suffered retaliation after leaving.5 Scott denied the allegation and said he had never sexually harassed anyone.6
Her later lawsuit named the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, rather than Scott personally, as defendant.7 In October 2020, a federal judge dismissed the harassment claims as untimely while allowing some other claims against the foundation to proceed; this was not a finding that Scott committed harassment.7 The later disposition of the remaining claims was not independently verified in this review.
Stock disclosure complaint
In September 2021, the Campaign Legal Center asked congressional ethics officials to review whether Scott had failed to file transaction notices for four apparent stock purchases that appeared in his annual disclosure.8 The complaint acknowledged that purchases below the reporting threshold could have appreciated afterward, so the annual holdings alone did not establish a violation.8
The Virginia Star reported that his office had not responded to its request for comment at the time of its September 2021 article.9 A confirmed investigation, finding or later resolution of this complaint was not verified in this review.