Three years after losing re-election as mayor of Jacksonville, Alvin Brown is going to run for Congress against first-term U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, according to the Florida Times-Union.
Both candidates are Democrats and would run in the Fifth Congressional District, which stretches from Downtown Jacksonville to Tallahassee across the top of Florida -- the district carved out by the Florida Legislature during redistricting in 2016.
The district survived several legal challenges by former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, who was ultimately defeated by Lawson, a former state representative and senator in the Tallahassee area.
“These challenging times call for each of us to stand up and speak out about the kind of community in which we want to live,” Brown said in his statement obtained by the Times-Union. “North Florida deserves a pragmatic, visionary leader who will aggressively champion policies that create good-paying jobs, ensure economic and financial security for all, and improve our overall quality of life.”
Florida's Division of Elections shows no candidates had filed paperwork to run in the district, but News4Jax found a website and Twitter account for the Brown for Congress campaign.
Brown, an Edward Waters College and Jacksonville University graduate, was elected in 2011 as Jacksonville's first black mayor. He previously had worked in Washington as an intern for Bill Nelson while Nelson was a member of the United States House. He worked on the staff of the Clinton-Gore transition team in 1992 and 1993, and then worked in various positions in Clinton administration, including the U.S. Department of Commerce, Housing and Urban Development and the Agriculture Department.
