Representative Brenda L. Lawrence

Brenda L. Lawrence (née Lulenar; born October 18, 1954) is an American retired politician and postal worker who represented Michigan in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served four terms in Congress, initially representing Michigan’s 14th congressional district, which covered most of eastern Detroit, including downtown, and extended west into portions of Oakland County such as Farmington Hills, Pontiac, and her home city of Southfield. Redrawn into the 12th district following redistricting, she did not seek reelection in 2022 and retired from Congress upon the expiration of her fourth term in 2023.

Lawrence grew up on Detroit’s northeast side, on Lumpkin Street. Her early life was marked by personal loss; her mother died when she was three years old, and she was subsequently raised by her grandparents. She attended local Detroit public schools and graduated from Pershing High School. She later earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University, an academic foundation that would inform her long career in public service and government.

Before entering elective office, Lawrence had a three-decade career with the United States Postal Service. Over approximately 30 years, she advanced through the organization to work in human resources, gaining experience in personnel management and labor issues. She retired from the Postal Service in 2008. Her initial involvement in public life came through her children’s education; as an active member of the Parent-Teacher Association in the early 1990s, she successfully ran for a seat on the Southfield Public Schools Board of Education. During her tenure on the board she served in multiple leadership roles, including president, vice president, and secretary, helping to shape local education policy.

Lawrence’s political career expanded into municipal government when she was elected to the Southfield City Council in 1997. In 1999 she was chosen by her colleagues as council president, further elevating her profile in local governance. In 2001, she ran for mayor of Southfield and defeated longtime incumbent Donald Fracassi, becoming the city’s first African American and first female mayor. She was reelected without opposition in 2005, and later won a third term in 2009 with nearly 80 percent of the vote against former Councilwoman Sylvia Jordan. She secured a fourth term unopposed in 2013, serving as mayor from 2001 to 2015. As mayor, she was invited in 2008 by the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform to testify on behalf of U.S. mayors about the mortgage crisis and its impact on American communities, and she returned to Washington later that year to lobby Congress for a bridge loan to support the American auto industry.

In addition to her mayoral responsibilities, Lawrence became active in state and national Democratic politics. She served as a Michigan delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. As a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, she endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama for president in June 2008. That same year, she sought higher office at the county level, announcing her candidacy in May 2008 for Oakland County Executive. Unopposed for the Democratic nomination, she challenged longtime Republican incumbent L. Brooks Patterson in the general election. Patterson won reelection by a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent, though Lawrence’s campaign was widely regarded as the strongest challenge he faced in his six elections as county executive. In 2010, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero selected Lawrence as his running mate in his bid for governor of Michigan. Formally nominated as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor at the Michigan Democratic Party convention in August 2010, she campaigned statewide on a “Main Street Agenda” emphasizing their shared experience as mayors. In the general election, however, the Democratic ticket of Bernero and Lawrence lost to Republicans Rick Snyder and Brian Calley by a margin of 58 percent to 40 percent in a year of strong Republican turnout; no statewide Democratic candidates were successful in Michigan in 2010.

Lawrence first sought a seat in Congress following the redrawing of Michigan’s congressional districts after the 2010 census. In late 2011, she announced her candidacy in the newly configured 14th congressional district, which had previously been the 13th district represented by freshman Democrat Hansen Clarke. The redrawn district took in a large portion of Oakland County, including Southfield, while Clarke’s Detroit residence was shifted into the neighboring 13th district. In the 2012 Democratic primary, the key contest in the heavily Democratic, Black-majority 14th district, Lawrence faced incumbent Representatives Hansen Clarke and Gary Peters, both of whom lived outside the district, as well as former State Representative Mary D. Waters. Peters won the primary with 47 percent of the vote, followed by Clarke with 35 percent, Lawrence with 13 percent, and Waters with 3 percent, and he went on to win the general election.

When Representative Gary Peters announced in May 2013 that he would not seek reelection to the House in 2014 in order to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Carl Levin, Lawrence again entered the race for the 14th congressional district. She formally announced her candidacy on January 23, 2014, and was the first candidate to submit signatures to qualify for the August Democratic primary ballot. Her primary opponents included former Congressman Hansen Clarke of Detroit, State Representative Rudy Hobbs of Southfield, and teacher Burgess D. Foster of Detroit. In campaign finance filings, Hobbs reported raising $607,806, Lawrence $383,649, and Clarke $173,124, while Foster reported no contributions to the Federal Election Commission, indicating he raised or spent less than $5,000. Michigan Congressman Sander Levin’s political action committee, GOALPAC, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Hobbs, who had previously worked on Levin’s congressional staff. In the August 5, 2014 Democratic primary, Lawrence won the nomination with 36 percent of the vote, compared with 32 percent for Hobbs, 31 percent for Clarke, and 1 percent for Foster. She performed strongly in Oakland County, carrying Southfield, Pontiac, Oak Park, and Royal Oak Township, and was competitive in the Detroit portion of the district, winning more Election Day votes in Detroit than all other candidates combined, despite expectations that Clarke would dominate there.

In the November 2014 general election, Lawrence, as the Democratic nominee, initially faced Republican candidate Christina Conyers of Detroit, who later withdrew and was replaced by Christina Barr of Pontiac. Also on the ballot were Libertarian Leonard Schwartz of Oak Park and Green Party candidate Stephen Boyle of Detroit. Reflecting the district’s strong Democratic voting history, Lawrence won the general election decisively with 78 percent of the vote, while Barr received 20 percent and Schwartz and Boyle each received 1 percent. She took office in the 114th Congress on January 3, 2015, beginning eight years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. During her tenure, she served on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, including its Subcommittee on Government Operations, and on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. On Appropriations, she served on the Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, and the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Over four terms in office, she contributed to the legislative process during a period of significant political and social change in the United States, representing the interests of her constituents in Detroit and Oakland County.

Within the House, Lawrence was active in several ideological and demographic caucuses. She was a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, reflecting engagement with both centrist and progressive strands within the Democratic Party. She also belonged to the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Arts Caucus, the Congressional Former Mayors’ Caucus, and the Medicare for All Caucus, underscoring her focus on urban issues, the arts, municipal governance, and health care policy. During the 2022 redistricting cycle, Detroit’s congressional map was significantly reshaped, and Lawrence’s 14th district was eliminated. Although the new lines created an open, heavily Democratic 13th district, the combination of the district reshuffle and several deaths in her family led to widespread speculation that she would not seek another term. On January 4, 2022, she announced that she would retire at the end of the 117th Congress, becoming the 25th House Democrat to declare retirement in that election cycle, and she left office when her fourth term concluded in 2023.

In her personal life, Lawrence was married to McArthur Lawrence until his death in 2023. The couple were high school sweethearts, having first met outside the Midway Market corner store where he worked on Detroit’s east side. They purchased their first home on Detroit’s northwest side and raised two children; they also have a granddaughter. Her husband was a member of the United Auto Workers and worked for Ford Motor Company, reflecting the family’s close ties to Michigan’s industrial and labor heritage.