DONNA
FERN EDWARDS
A lawyer, longtime community activist, and single mom, Donna Edwards defeated an eight-term Democratic incumbent to become the first African American woman to represent Maryland in the U.S. Congress.
Donna passed her first piece of legislation with an amendment in an appropriations bill that guaranteed after-school meals for low-income students. Her life experiences honed her keen sense for identifying lesser-noticed, yet key, issues impacting her constituents.
She co-founded and served as the first executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, working to pass the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. She pushed for more federal funds to boost math and science education in her district and organized college and career fairs for high school students in her neighborhood.
In 2015, Donna helped introduce the Restoring Education & Learning Act (REAL Act), which sought to bring back access to education for prisoners through Pell grants. She educated others on the numerous advantages of prisoner education, including net benefits to taxpayers who bear the costs of recidivism.
In a run for county executive in 2018, she made it clear that she was accepting zero dollars from developers as she observed their outsized influence on local zoning laws and its negative effect on her constituents.
In 2013, Donna sponsored an amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in "Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission." Commonly referred to as "Citizens United," it cleared a way for wealthy donors and other business entities to run political ads and funnel vast amounts of money to support candidates who align with their interests, all while remaining relatively hidden from public scrutiny by hiding behind innocuous and misleading names.
Nine years after she sponsored the amendment to repeal Citizens United, the nation's largest pro-Israel lobbying group at the time, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its SuperPAC (Political Action Committee,) created less than a year earlier, "United Democracy Project," spent nearly $6 million in efforts to keep Donna out of Congress, where she would have represented the people of Maryland's 4th Congressional District.
Edwards criticized her opponent on the campaign trail for courting support from a dark-money super PAC.
In 2022, Edwards made another bid to return to Congress, running for her old seat representing Maryland's 4th Congressional District. Despite initially holding a significant lead in the polls, Edwards ultimately lost the Democratic primary to Glenn Ivey, receiving 35 percent of the vote to Ivey's 52 percent.
The race became heavily influenced by outside spending when United Democracy Project, an AIPAC-linked super PAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC spent nearly $6.4 million in advertising to defeat Donna Edward’s campaign.
It's important to note that Donna Edwards also received funding from two PACs: J Street PAC, which positions itself against what it terms "MAGA extremists" and right-wing efforts to influence U.S. policy, gave her $720,000. The League of Conservation Voters, an American nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, contributed $550,000 to her campaign.
Despite her best efforts, Citizens United still has not been repealed, and the agenda of the wealthy donors and business entities that she warned about outspent her 5 to 1 and ultimately defeated her campaign.
Since her congressional service ended in 2017, Donna has remained active in progressive politics and advocacy work.
She became a senior fellow of the Brennan Center for Justice, has held leadership positions in several non-profit organization boards, and continues to express her political views as a regular commentator and has written columns for The Washington Post, maintaining her voice on important policy issues affecting working families and marginalized communities.
