Not everyone takes the positions seriously, but the District’s statehood delegation to Congress is steeped in history. Puerto Rico now has one, and Tennessee, Michigan, California, Minnesota, Oregon and Alaska similarly had elected officials plead the case for statehood prior to admission. DC began voting for a shadow representative and two shadow senators in 1990.
In this year’s Democratic primary, Andria Thomas is running as a first-time candidate for a position current shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown has held for over a decade. Rep. Franklin Garcia is running unopposed. Despite differences on other matters, all three want one piece of legislation passed as soon as possible: D.C. statehood.
Michael D. Brown
As a shadow senator, Brown doesn’t receive any compensation for the role. He’s been working for years with no pay, living off the money he earned as a successful political consultant.
“I sacrifice a lot for it — my wife works two jobs, and we’ve been living off savings,” Brown said.
Brown has an office in the John A. Wilson Building, where he has a paid staff. He keeps a busy schedule. In a single month he lobbied three Republican senators’ offices and spent four days at an international conference in Portugal. Throughout his visits and work, he tirelessly and passionately advocates for D.C. statehood.
“People from DC fought in every war [and] we pay the highest taxes in the U.S., yet we are excluded from government,” Brown said, his voice rising. “Imagine telling people from Detroit they can’t drive. …
“We don’t have control over our own budget, legal system, anything,” he added. “If we become a state, that all goes away.”
Brown often uses a soccer analogy when it comes to DC statehood. “There was one little boy on our daughter’s team who just kicked the ball no matter what … just kick, kick, kick,” Brown said. “And he would eventually score the goal. That’s what we have to do with statehood.”
In the little free time he has, Brown hosts an internet radio show that gets 400,000 hits per year. He co-hosts with a Republican woman, and says he has called himself a Democrat since he was 18 years old. He did briefly change his registration to independent for an unsuccessful DC Council run in 2014.
Brown has also started a website for teachers and students to teach and learn about democracy.
“It’s tied to the social-studies standards teachers use,” Brown said, adding that students can see DC statehood as a real-life civil rights struggle.
Brown has a noteworthy background. At 15 he lost both parents and dropped out of high school. He volunteered at a soup kitchen and senior citizens’ center. With people believing in him, supporting and mentoring him along the way, Brown earned his GED diploma, attended college and later earned a master’s degree.
After college, he worked for former President Jimmy Carter, whom he calls a “good guy.”
Brown started his own business with just $400 and became wealthy enough that he hasn’t had to work for the past eight years. He has what he calls “the greatest wife on the planet,” who works as a school librarian and a graduate school instructor to make ends meet for their family. He has three children, two of whom recently graduated from college and another just starting her junior year.
“‘To whom much is given, much is expected,’” Brown said, quoting President John F. Kennedy
Andria Thomas
Brown’s opponent, Andria Thomas, is a first-time candidate, and she is fed up — fed up with how Congress interferes with local laws, such as gun regulations.
“I am fed up with not having two senators and a representative to call when federal laws are being determined, laws that impact health care, our taxes or whether our drinking water remains clean,” Thomas said. “I am running for shadow senator because it offers a platform for advocating strongly on the Hill and across the country, to defend D.C. rights and to demand the statehood we deserve.”
The most urgent issue Thomas wants to work on is DC’s lack of full voting representation in Congress. She says a single, non-voting delegate to the House is not enough.
“Without this voice and leverage in both the House and Senate, we will always be subject to congressional interference, and we’ll lack the ability to self-govern, control our budget and negotiate against federal control in other areas such as our criminal justice system,” she said.
Thomas hopes to bring a modern and strategic approach to the fight for D.C. statehood. She said that new national partners are needed, as is significantly more funding for a statehood effort. She plans to seek these funds from both private and public sources.
“We need more professional and sustained advocacy efforts, with strategic social media plans, to remind people and Congress that lack of statehood is fundamentally voter suppression,” Thomas said. “As a shadow senator, I will work with statehood partners to achieve these goals.”
Thomas previously worked as a management consultant for Boston Consulting Group in Chicago and Helsinki. She moved to D.C. to join strategy firm Dalberg Advisors. For over 10 years, her job has included building coalitions, shaping strategies and designing plans that lead to action.
Thomas has always been active in her community, but says the 2017 Women’s March really led her to go “next level.” She founded “Resist and Rise,” a community action group in Southeast (now “Indivisible Capitol Hill”). The group looked for innovative ways for DC residents to have a voice in resisting President Donald Trump’s agenda. She also organized “My First Lobby Day,” which brought families together to advocate for D.C. rights. She worked on “Hands off DC’s Gun Laws,” where kids wrote messages before heading over to the offices of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett.
Thomas has two daughters, Maggie, 6, and Mina, 18 months.
“Everything I do is inspired by them,” Thomas said.
Franklin Garcia
Although no one is running against him in his race for shadow representative, incumbent Franklin Garcia has been advocating for D.C. statehood as long as he can remember. Like Brown and Thomas, he is unpaid. However, the city does provide a $225,000 budget for both his office and those of the two shadow senators. The money is used largely to cover staff.
Garcia said his biggest challenge is getting people “wild about DC statehood. … We need to do a better job at getting people to understand, ‘How does not being in a state affect you? What are you losing out on?’”
Garcia, who arrived in DC from the Dominican Republic when he was 10, is seeking the help of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a fellow immigrant, with his statehood legislation. Since Ros-Lehtinen announced she would not be running for re-election, Garcia is trying hard to push the legislation before Ros-Lehtinen leaves Congress.
In addition to serving as shadow congressman, Garcia founded the DC Latino Caucus over 10 years ago. He’s also active in the local immigrant and Hispanic communities.
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