Southfield Politics
In 1997, she was elected to serve on Southfield's City Council and in 1999 she was elected council president.
In 2001, she defeated longtime Southfield Mayor Donald Fracassi becoming the city's first African-American and first female mayor. She was re-elected in 2005 without opposition. As mayor, she was invited by the U.S. House Oversight Committee in 2008 to represent United States mayors in testimony about the mortgage crisis and its effect on American communities. She returned to Washington later that year to lobby Congress for a bridge loan for the American auto industry.
Lawrence was a Michigan delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. As a superdelegate at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, she endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama for president in June 2008.
She successfully sought a third term as mayor in 2009 defeating former Councilwoman Sylvia Jordan with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Read more about this topic: Brenda L. Lawrence
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