Florence Pendleton

Florence Pendleton
Pendleton in 1993
United States Shadow Senator from the District of Columbia
In office January 3, 1991 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	Michael Brown
Personal details
Born	Florence Howard (1926-01-28)January 28, 1926 Columbus, Georgia, U.S.
Died	September 10, 2020(2020-09-10) (aged 94) Columbus, Georgia, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Education	Howard University (BS, MS) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Florence Howard Pendleton (January 28, 1926 – September 10, 2020)^[1] was an American political activist who served as a shadow senator from the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2007.

Pendleton's main goal as shadow senator was to promote the efforts of the District of Columbia to gain full voting rights. She was inaugurated as the first ever shadow senator from the District of Columbia on January 3, 1991.^[2] She was known as “The Education Senator”^{[citation needed]} because of her legacy as a life-long educator, administrator of DC Public Schools, and founder of the nonprofit “STAND”, The Society for Teaching Americans about New Columbia and DC Statehood.

Pendleton defended her seat in 2000, cruising to victory in the general election over Janet Helms, beating her 84%–14%.^[3] Her re-election bid in 2006 failed when Philip Pannell successfully challenged that she failed to have 2,000 valid signatures to get onto the ballot, having only 1,559. She ran as a write-in candidate, but only won 1,363 votes as Michael Donald Brown cruised to victory with 62,415 votes over her and Pannell's 21,552 votes to win the Democratic Primary. Her last day in office was on January 3, 2007.