When former Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown was growing up, his father pushed him to work hard, do well and to get up any time he fell down or wasn’t successful. And on Nov. 8, that conditioning proved useful as Brown (D) was elected to be Maryland’s 4th Congressional District representative, taking over the seat previously held by Donna Edwards.
Anthony Brown was elected as the Congressional Representative for the 4th District of Maryland. (Courtesy Photo)
”Sometimes in life you going to get knock down and if you believe in what you are doing, you pick yourself up, you brush yourself off and you stay in the fight,” Brown told the AFRO. “After I lost the race for Governor, when this opportunity to run for Congress presented itself I know what I wanted to do.”
In 2014 Brown lost the Maryland Gubernatorial race to Republican Larry Hogan.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to serve the people of Maryland and America in Congress,” he said. Brown defeated with 74 percentage points of the vote, Republican George McDermott (22 percent), Green Party Kamesha Clark (2 percent) and Libertarian Party Benjamin Krause (2 percent).
Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker III told Brown, before he walked into St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Largo, Md. — the site of his victory speech — “We are excited because we are going to get a new Congressman in the county, someone we know and love who is going to go a long way.”
In 1998, Brown was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent Prince George’s County. He served as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and, later, as Majority Whip. Brown also served in the military, retiring as a Colonel in the United States Army Reserve.
In 2004, during his service, Brown was deployed to Iraq, where he earned a Bronze Star and became one of the nation’s highest-ranking elected officials to serve a tour of duty in that conflict.
“It has been a real privilege to serve our nation,” Brown said. “I am the first generation American. My father came to this country from Jamaica. He was raised by his grandmother in a very poor community.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) won in the Senate race with the help of Prince George’s County.
On the Prince George’s County Board of Education, David Murray was elected to represent District 1 and Edward Burroughs III, a critic of Baker, won his District 8 race, too. Other board of education winners were in District 4, Patricia Eubanks; District 5, Raaheela Ahmed; and District 7, K. Alexander Wallace.
The controversial proposal to add two seats to the Prince George’s County Council passed overwhelmingly, as well.
James Wright contributed to this article.