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Still Think Democrats Aren't Fighting Back? Introducing Shontel Brown. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-07

Shontel Brown currently represents Ohio’s eleventh district. She succeeded Marcia Fudge after Representative Fudge was promoted to the Biden cabinet. She completed an upset in the Democratic primary in 2021. She later won the general election handily, as well as subsequent primaries and general elections.

Shontel Brown was first elected in 2011 to the Warrentsville Heights city council. She moved onto the County Council in 2014, and in 2017 became the first Black woman to be elected chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

She currently sits on the Committee on Agriculture, which oversees SNAP benefits, and the Committee on Oversight and Reform. She is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment, the Progressive Caucus, the New Democrat Coalition and the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

So what has Shontel Brown done since Trump’s election? Let’s find out.

Shontel Brown understands that as a member of the minority party, her job isn’t just to criticize but to promote alternatives to Republican cruelty by supporting and introducing legislation. In this session, she has already introduced three pieces of legislation.

One of her signature issues is her full support for DEI initiatives. Below we see her questioning Kathleen Wylie during a hearing in which the Republican Party demonstrated that they are “threatened” by DEI policy. She introduced legislation to codify President Johnson’s Executive Order banning federal contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains after Trump overturned this sixty year old EO recently.

In her introductory statement at the hearing, she said, “Supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is not only right and just, it is essential to ensuring that talented, intelligent, and qualified individuals have opportunities to succeed.”

She does not apologize for or minimize her support for DEI. She embraces DEI and fights for it. In 2024, she introduced the Diverse Cybersecurity Workforce Act, noting that at the time the bill was introduced only 9% of the field was Black, just 4% Hispanic, and just 24% women.

x U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown introduces bill to codify anti-discrimination protections: www.cleveland.com/news/2025/02... — Sabrina Eaton (@sabrinaeaton.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T17:56:24.359Z

She introduced the Hunger Free Future Act to Congress. Here is a link to the press conference held to announce the legislation.

youtube.com/…

In this press conference , she said, “We are here because Donald Trump and House Republicans are at it again, pushing a heartless, gutless, shameless scheme to line the pockets of the ultra wealthy while ripping food from the mouths of children, seniors, and veterans.”

To demonstrate the need to defend SNAP, she participated in a “SNAP Challenge”.

x Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown became the latest lawmaker to complete the "SNAP Challenge," shopping for a week's worth of groceries on just a $42 $42 the average weekly amount that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients are given nationwide, #News #News&Pollitics — TLT: Lets get this 4 years over with (@ihatetrump4ever.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T01:48:21.303Z

“I have colleagues, specifically my Republican colleagues, who are trying to strip away the six dollars a day it takes to make a $42 a week budget work, meanwhile they want to do this so they can give tax breaks to their billionaire buddies...make it make sense”.

In addition to her work on Congressional committees and introducing legislation, she has been active in her district since the election conducting town halls and attending demonstrations in support of postal workers, federal workers, and she spoke at the Cleveland Hands Off demonstration.

x Trump and Elon, do you see this? NE Ohio does not want the cuts, chaos, and cruelty. Thank you to everyone who attended our huge town hall tonight in Cleveland Heights. I’m honored to represent you and appreciated your questions and insights. — Rep. Shontel Brown (@repshontelbrown.bsky.social) 2025-03-19T01:47:04.522Z

x Congresswoman Shontel Brown @repshontelbrown.bsky.social supporting the #Cleveland @lettercarriers.bsky.social Rally to Save the USPS! 📬 #HellNo to dismantling USPS! #FightLikeHell for a strong, public Postal Service: nalc.org/march23 @aflcio.org — Stuart O. Smith, Jr. - sosAssociates.com (@sosjr.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T18:26:48.534Z

x 🔗: https://l.cleveland.com/r45im3 Union members and Rep. Shontel Brown rallied in 19-degree temperatures outside Cleveland’s Celebrezze Federal Building Thursday, protesting mass federal layoffs by Trump and Musk’s Dept. of Government Efficiency. Photos: Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com — cleveland.com (@cleveland.com) 2025-02-20T20:25:01.770Z

x Calling on all elected Democrats in the Senate and Congress to hold events for their constituents, whether TownHalls or speaking out at organized protests. Rep. Shontel Brown (OH-11) spoke out at our #WomensMarch in Cleveland this past Saturday! Thank you! More of this please! — MagicalMerlin (@magicalmerlin20-0.bsky.social) 2025-03-10T15:31:42.188Z

And, she has always been a team player, supporting her Democratic brethren.

x It’s been two years of nonstop Republican antics on Oversight. However, I’m grateful to have Rep Summer Lee and Rep Jasmine Crockett to keep it 100 with me, defend diversity, and speak the truth. -Rep. Shontel Brown — Audrey (@parickards.bsky.social) 2024-11-22T19:51:43.976Z

x Thank you Senator Booker for fighting for the American people. I stand with you! — Rep. Shontel Brown (@repshontelbrown.bsky.social) 2025-04-01T20:19:01.997Z

Shontel Brown has only been in Congress for four years but has already made her mark. She is a strong activist for issues including hunger, DEI, and civil rights. She understands politics and the need to be both an activist and a legislator.

The reason I write these diaries, and focus in more depth on individual Congressional Democrats, is to show readers on this site the incredible work being done. It is easy to tear down. It is easy to give in to anger and despair. But there is a choice to be made. Party supporters can wallow in cynicism and defeatism, they can repeat far right tropes about Democrats being “coastal elites” and “spineless”, or they can choose to support and amplify the vast majority of Democrats, largely unheralded and less well known, who are meeting the moment with strength and resolve every day.

If you want even more information on what Democrats are doing, go seek out Janesaunt’s diaries “Dems Dems and More Dems”, which is published three times a week, and lpeacocks Thursday diaries on the Congressional Black Caucus. Both are good reading and deserve more support.

T2 has also just begun a series called the Rainbow Roundup, where focus is placed on LGBTQ lawmakers and journalists. And Billboteach has one focusing on Hispanic elected Democrats.

Here are links to the last diaries Billboteach, T2, Janesaunt and lPeacock posted.

www.dailykos.com/…

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