[8][4][9] On February 16, 2018, Baltimore attorney Jim Shea announced the selection of Scott as his running mate in 2018 Maryland gubernatorial election.

[24] During his tenure, Scott faced criticism for his handling of important issues in the city, including schools, constituent services, and crime.

[26][27] On May 14, 2024, Scott won the city's Democratic primary for his second term as mayor of Baltimore, once again narrowly beating his rival, Sheila Dixon.

[28] He won re-election after defeating Republican challenger Shannon Wright on November 5, 2024, becoming the first Baltimore mayor since Martin O'Malley to win a second term.

[29] Inaugurated in a small, socially distanced ceremony on December 8, 2020, Scott vowed to take on both "public health emergencies" — gun violence and the coronavirus.

[32] On his first day in office, Scott signed an order mandating an end to restaurant dining, both indoor and outdoor, and capping retail activity, religious gatherings, gyms, malls, casinos, and museums to 25 percent capacity.

"[41] In May 2021, Scott delivered a letter to Hogan asking him to impose a temporary statewide eviction moratorium while local jurisdictions continued to distribute federal rent relief funding to tenants and landlords.

[42] In January 2022, Scott declined requests from housing advocates to institute an eviction moratorium in Baltimore, saying that he didn't have the power to do it on his own and that action would need to come at the state level.

[49][50] Scott pushed back against this criticism by asking people to "look at the full picture behind violent crime rather than the "simple conflict" that leads to the loss of life.

This program targets outreach to individuals who are identified as being likely victims or perpetrators of gun violence within the city and stresses community based policing strategies.

The four central tenets of the program are the reviewing of gun violence incidents, direct outreach, life coaching, and strategic policing.

The goal of this program is to free up city resources by redirecting non-emergencies and mental health crisis to other services, while limiting false alarm calls.

[62] In July 2023, following a shooting in the Brooklyn neighborhood that left two dead and 28 injured, Scott released a statement expressing condolences and called for further crackdowns on illegal guns coming in from other states[63][64] and criticized people who uploaded videos of the incident to social media for not intervening.

[65] He also defended the role of the police and the city's Safe Streets gun violence program against criticism, saying the focus should "instead be on a few people who cowardly decided to shoot up a big block party celebration for a community".

[76][77] In December 2023, Scott's administration joined other community leaders in announcing an $8 billion plan to revitalize some parts of the city blighted by abandoned or vacant properties.

[79] In April 2022, Scott announced a guaranteed income pilot program to provide 200 young parents between the ages of 18 and 24 with payments of $1,000 per month over two years.

[82] In June 2021, Scott announced his opposition to a proposal to construct a Maglev connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C., delivering a letter to the Maryland Department of Planning urging them to reject the project.

[84] In order to help prioritize projects in the city, Scott created The Mayor's Office of Infrastructure Development in June 2022 and appointed Matthew Garbark to head the department.

"[86] In April 2022, Scott launched the "Let's Ride to Work" program, which is a partnership between Mayor's Office of Employment Development and Lyft which is being funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.