Donna Edwards
| Donna Edwards | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 4th district |
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In office June 17, 2008 – January 3, 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Albert Wynn |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Brown |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
June 28, 1958 Yanceyville, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater |
Wake Forest University (BA) University of New Hampshire, Concord (JD) |
Donna F. Edwards (born June 28, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 4th congressional district from 2008 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes most of Prince George's County, as well as part of Anne Arundel County.
A lawyer and longtime community activist, she defeated 15-year incumbent Albert Wynn in the 2008 Democratic primary, and, following his resignation, won a special election on June 17, 2008, to fill the remainder of this term. She was sworn in two days later on June 19, becoming the first African-American woman to represent Maryland in the United States Congress. Edwards ran for a full term in November 2008, defeating Republican candidate Peter James with 85% of the vote. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 in the primary to replace retiring Barbara Mikulski instead of running for re-election to her Congressional seat, but was defeated by Chris Van Hollen in the Democratic primary.
She sponsored an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would repeal the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Edwards was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina. She earned B.A. degrees in English and Spanish from Wake Forest University, where she was one of only six black women in the class of 1980. After working for Lockheed Corporation at the Goddard Space Flight Center with the Spacelab program, she attended and earned a J.D. in 1989 from the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center). Edwards worked for Albert Wynn as a clerk in the 1980s, when he served in the Maryland House of Delegates.
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