Michael Donald Brown
Michael Donald Brown is an American politician who served as the Seniority in [the United States Senate|junior] United States shadow senator from the District of Columbia from 2007 to 2025.
As a shadow senator, Brown received no pay from the government, receives no budget from the government, and could not vote on matters before the Senate. While he did not have an office in the United States Capitol or any of the Senate's office buildings, the district's government provides the position with an office in the John A. Wilson Building. Brown lobbied the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the citizens of the district in their attempt to gain full representation in Congress, self-determination, and eventually admittance to the Union as a state. As shadow senator, Brown also works with the district's delegate, mayor, and council to advance the interest of local residents on federal issues. Brown was a member of the Democratic Party, until he changed his party registration to independent in 2014. He re-joined the Democratic Party in 2017.
Brown is known colloquially as "white Mike" to distinguish him from Michael A. Brown, another Washington, D.C. politician who shares the same name. Brown's opponent in one race suggested that some Washingtonians might be voting for Michael D. Brown thinking they were voting for Michael A. Brown; Michael D. Brown strenuously denied this possibility.
Positions
In 2018, Brown became irate that his delegation was not included in the D.C. Council's financing bill. After yelling and disrupting the proceedings, Brown quieted down after he was told that he would be forcibly removed from the premises.2006 election
Brown ran for the position of shadow senator in 2006, using campaign posters with the slogan "the last Shadow Senator you'll ever need" and registering the domain name "shadowsenator.com" for his website. Brown opposed a bill to give the district a full representative in the House of Representatives because it did not make the district a state. In the Democratic primary in September, he received 73 percent of the vote, defeating his opponent, Ward 8 activist Philip Pannell. Incumbent shadow senator Florence Pendleton was not on the primary ballot after Pannell challenged her nominating ballots. Of her required 2,000 ballots, only 1,559 were found to be valid. She campaigned as a write-in, but received only 2 percent of the vote. Pannell blamed his loss at least partly on voter confusion, since the better-known Michael A. Brown was running for mayor at the same time; others, including Michael A. Brown himself, agreed.In the November general election, Brown received 86 percent of the votes, while Joyce Robinson-Paul, a member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party, received 14 percent. There was no Republican candidate running for the position.