ORLANDO, Fla. – Corrine Brown, a former congresswoman for the Orlando area, is hoping to get back into office again.
Brown announced Thursday that she was running for U.S. House District 10. That’s the Orlando area congressional district that Rep. Val Demings is leaving to run for a U.S. Senate seat.
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In her announcement, Brown touted the support and reputation she had from her many years in Congress, and the need to turn the country around.
“Now I see our hard-won gains are being taken away from us,” Brown said. “Minorities have lost opportunities to elect candidates of their choice because of the recent gerrymandering in the State of Florida. Over the past two decades, we’ve gone backward on guns – and more of our children are dying. We’ve gone backward on voting rights – and more of our people are disenfranchised. And we’re going backward on a woman’s right to choose – and more women are going to be harmed. We’ve got to turn this country around, move forward instead of backward.”
Brown was first elected to Congress in 1993 to House District 3, and then later District 5. At one point, the district she represented spanned from Jacksonville to Orlando.
But Brown was convicted in 2017 on fraud charges related to a charity she purportedly used as a personal slush fund.
She served two years of a five-year federal prison sentence before she was released because of coronavirus concerns.
Brown’s conviction was then overturned on federal appeal in 2021. The court ruled a juror was improperly removed from the trial because he said the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty.
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Last month, Brown reached an agreement with the Justice Dept. and pleaded guilty to one tax charge, with no additional prison time. She paid restitution to the IRS.
In her campaign announcement, Brown said the ordeal allowed her to experience the inequities of the American judicial system firsthand.
“There are far too many innocent people wrongly imprisoned,” Brown said. “Too many people whose lives have been ruined because of a racially-biased and broken judicial system. And there are too many people who are being overlooked and underpaid by both the State of Florida and the federal government. If nobody else is going to stand up to right these wrongs and fight for those who are being denied their God-given rights to freedom, justice, and the ability to participate in our democratic system, I will!”
Regardless, Brown joins a list of 20 people who so far are running for Congressional District 10. She is running as a Democrat, and she faces an Aug. 23 primary with 10 other candidates, including former Rep. Alan Grayson, State Sen. Randolph Bracy and civil rights attorney Natalie Jackson.
The qualifying period to be a candidate for the 2022 elections ends Friday at noon.