Michael Donald Brown

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.[13]

Brown in 2007

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.[14][15] 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.[14] 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.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18] There was no Republican candidate running for the position.

Brown was a candidate for at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia.[19][20] Other Democrats running for the same position included Clark Ray and incumbent Phil Mendelson,[19] who was comfortably re-elected.[21] Concerned that many voters would confuse which Michael Brown was on the ballot, Mendelson sent out mailers with pictures of both politicians.[12]

Brown sought reelection to his position as shadow senator in 2012. He had the endorsements of District progressive organizations [22] and local Democratic party groups.[23] Brown was challenged by a wealthy District landlord Peter A. Ross who self-funded his campaign and outspent Brown by a more than 200:1 ratio. Ross's campaign had to overcome news reports noting a past conviction for federal tax fraud[24] and reports that he failed to pay his District real estate taxes.[25] Brown won reelection.

Brown faced a competitive primary challenge from Andria Thomas, defeating her by 51% to 47.3%. He was re-elected in the general election with 88.2% of the vote.

Brown was born in Newark, New Jersey, and moved to Montgomery County, Maryland, as a teenager.[6][14] Brown received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Maryland.[10][11] Brown has lived in the District since 1984,[6] and he currently lives in the neighborhood of American University Park.[11] Brown is also the president[11] and founder[10] of Horizon Communications Corp., which provides direct-mail services to political organizations and non-profit organizations.[6]

In 2014, Brown ran as an independent for a seat on the Council of the District of Columbia as an at-large member. He finished 3rd, but the top two finishers won the seats.