Florence Howard Pendleton (January 28, 1926 – September 10, 2020) was an American political activist who served as a shadow senator from the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2007. Pendleton's main goal as shadow senator was to promote the efforts of the District of Columbia to gain full voting rights. She was inaugurated as the first ever shadow senator from the District of Columbia on January 3, 1991. She was known as “The Education Senator” because of her legacy as a life-long educator, administrator of DC Public Schools, and founder of the nonprofit “STAND”, The Society for Teaching Americans about New Columbia and DC Statehood. Pendleton defended her seat in 2000, cruising to victory in the general election over Janet Helms, beating her 84%–14%. Her re-election bid in 2006 failed when Philip Pannell successfully challenged that she failed to have 2,000 valid signatures to get onto the ballot, having only 1,559. She ran as a write-in candidate, but only won 1,363 votes as

Michael Donald Brown Michael Donald "Mike" Brown (born August 5, 1953) is the junior United States shadow senator from the District of Columbia since 2007. As a shadow senator, Brown receives no pay from the government, receives no budget from the government, and ...

cruised to victory with 62,415 votes over her and Pannell's 21,552 votes to win the Democratic Primary. Her last day in office was on January 3, 2007.

Background

Pendleton graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree and a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

and she was a doctoral student at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

Election history

1990

In the general election, the top two vote getters were elected as Shadow senators of each seat, with Pendleton taking Seat 1 and Jackson taking Seat 2.

1994

2000

2006

Pendleton got kicked off the Democratic primary ballot for not getting enough valid signatures to qualify for the election. She ran as a write-in candidate with little success.

Political career

* November 6, 1990 — elected shadow senator when office was created * November 8, 1994 — reelected shadow senator * November 7, 2000 — reelected shadow senator * 2006 — filed to run for reelection but was knocked off the primary ballot when her opponent Phil Pannell challenged the signatures on her petition

References

, - 1926 births 2020 deaths People from Columbus, Georgia Howard University alumni Virginia Tech alumni United States shadow senators from the District of Columbia Women in Washington, D.C., politics Washington, D.C., Democrats 21st-century American women {{WashingtonDC-politician-stub