Florence Pendleton

Template:Short description Florence Howard Pendleton (January 28, 1926 – September 10, 2020) 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. She was known as “The Education Senator” 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%. 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.

Background

Pendleton graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science and she was a doctoral student at Virginia Tech.

Election history

1990

Template:Election box open primary general election no change

1990 Shadow Senator election in Washington, D.C.

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
		Jesse Jackson		57.03
		Florence Pendleton		16.92
		Harry "Tommy" Thomas, Jr.		14.95
		James Forman		6.61
		Marc Humphries		4.50
Total votes				100.00
		Jesse Jackson		46.80
		Florence Pendleton		25.89
		Harry T. Alexander		6.19
		Milton Francis		6.00
		Joan Gillison		5.69
		Keith M. Wilkerson		2.01
		Anthony W. Peacock		1.90
		John West		1.60
		David L. Whitehead		1.48
		Sam Manuel		1.23
		Lee Black		1.21
Total votes				100.00
	win (new seat)

In the general election, the top two vote getters were elected as Shadow senators of each seat, with Pendleton taking Seat 1 and Jackson taking Seat 2.

1994

Template:Election box open primary begin no change |- class=vcard | style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:5px" | | class=org style="width:130px" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn | Florence Pendleton (incumbent) | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | 76.83 |-

|- class="vcard" |style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:2px" | |class="org" style="width:130px"| !scope=row style="text-align: left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn| Stephen Sellows |style="text-align:right"| |style="text-align:right"| 20.06 |-

Template:Election box write-in with party link no change |- ! scope=row colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | | style="text-align:right;" | 100.00 |- Template:Election box open primary general election no change |- class=vcard | style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:5px" | | class=org style="width:130px" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn | Florence Pendleton (incumbent) | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | 74.04 |-

|- class="vcard" |style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:2px" | |class="org" style="width:130px"| !scope=row style="text-align: left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn| Julie Finley |style="text-align:right"| |style="text-align:right"| 15.19 |-

|- class="vcard" |style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:2px" | |class="org" style="width:130px"| !scope=row style="text-align: left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn| Mel Edwards |style="text-align:right"| |style="text-align:right"| 9.82 |-

Template:Election box write-in with party link no change |- ! scope=row colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | | style="text-align:right;" | 100.00 |-

|- | style="color:inherit;background-color: ;" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" colspan="5" | hold |-

|}

2000

Template:Election box open primary begin no change |- class=vcard | style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:5px" | | class=org style="width:130px" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn | Florence Pendleton (incumbent) | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | 96.48 |-

Template:Election box write-in with party link no change |- ! scope=row colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | | style="text-align:right;" | 100.00 |- Template:Election box open primary general election no change |- class=vcard | style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:5px" | | class=org style="width:130px" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn | Florence Pendleton (incumbent) | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | | style="text-align:right;margin-right:0.5em" | 88.97 |-

|- class="vcard" |style="color:inherit;background-color:;width:2px" | |class="org" style="width:130px"| !scope=row style="text-align: left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" class=fn| Janet Helms (withdrew) |style="text-align:right"| |style="text-align:right"| 10.33 |-

Template:Election box write-in with party link no change |- ! scope=row colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes | style="text-align:right;" | | style="text-align:right;" | 100.00 |-

|- | style="color:inherit;background-color: ;" | !scope=row style="text-align:left; font-weight:normal; color:inherit; background:inherit;" colspan="5" | hold |-

|}

2006

Template:Election box write-in with party link no change

2006 U.S. Shadow Senator Washington, D.C. Democratic Party primary election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
		Michael Donald Brown		73.15
		Philip Pannell		25.26
Total votes				100.00

Pendleton got kicked off the Democratic primary ballot for not getting enough valid signatures to qualify for the election. She ran as a write-in candidate with little success.

Political career

• November 6, 1990 — elected shadow senator when office was created
• November 8, 1994 — reelected shadow senator
• November 7, 2000 — reelected shadow senator
• 2006 — filed to run for reelection but was knocked off the primary ballot when her opponent Phil Pannell challenged the signatures on her petition

See also

• United States congressional delegations from the District of Columbia