Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, attended her first Democratic National Convention this week.
Brown has represented Ohio’s 11th District since winning a 2021 special election to replace Marcia Fudge when President Joe Biden appointed Fudge as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
She spoke exclusively with Blavity about the first two days of the convention, her history with the candidates on the presidential tickets, and what the difference between a President Kamala Harris and a returned President Donald Trump would mean for the country.
Convention is ‘beyond my wildest imagination’
Of her first Democratic National Convention experience, Brown told Blavity that “what I have experienced has been beyond my wildest imagination.” With everyone there understanding the stakes of the upcoming election, “the energy is off the charts and the enthusiasm is felt everywhere you go.”
She expressed particular excitement for the Obamas’ powerful speeches on Tuesday.
“First Lady Obama drew that contrast [between Trump and Harris] with the people same with President Obama in his very matter-of-fact and charismatic way.”
She also enjoyed Tuesday’s surprisingly lit roll call ceremony, giving props to fellow Rep. Nikema Willians, D-Ga., for bringing Lil Jon to the proceedings. Brown said she looks forward to the convention allowing more voters to get to know Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “a fellow Midwesterner.”
Preventing the U.S. from being taken ‘back before the Civil War’
Brown recalled her first time meeting Harris in 2018, during which Brown served as the first woman and first Black chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, and Harris was a keynote speaker at a party dinner. “When I met her, I was nervous, and I said, ‘I’m not sure you know what I need to do,” Brown said. Harris, in turn, “was very reaffirming; she said, ‘You got this; you’ve already got it.”
Brown remembered Harris having “the Black Girl Magic that she possesses that gives her the ability to connect with us in a way that you just don’t get to experience every day.”
Brown also expressed her familiarity with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, about whom she asserted that the Republican Party had “buyer’s remorse” after he was nominated as Trump’s vice presidential candidate.
“He is the person who has promoted not having women’s ability to make their own healthcare decisions, but even encouraging women to stay in violent relationships.”
Combined with the policies of Project 2025, Brown warned of the consequences of a Republican victory in November.
“As a Black woman, I see Project 2025 not just taking us before civil rights; we’re really taking us back before the Civil War.”
Electing Harris and fighting disinformation
With so much at stake, Brown was adamant that “I strongly believe that we have to do everything that we can so that we don’t experience what we experienced on November 9, 2016, when we wake up in despair or wake up in frustration and think that ‘Oh, my God, I could have done more’ to help their candidate win.” Brown also talked to Blavity about her efforts to protect the integrity of the American electoral system by introducing the Securing Elections from AI Deception Act.
“Artificial intelligence is getting better and better every day. And being able to determine what’s real from fake is going to get increasingly harder,” Brown expressed, “So I think that it is necessary that we begin to put guardrails on things like this.”
Brown and everyone watching at home observed the Democratic National Convention, which wrapped on Thursday with Harris giving her acceptance speech and further introducing herself to the American people.
