Born: 18 May 1955, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the U.S. Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
After defeating a veteran incumbent in the Democratic primary for a Georgia congressional seat, Denise L. Majette coasted to victory in the 2002 general election, earning a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 108th Congress (2003–2005). During her single House term, Majette sought to boost funding for a variety of social services and to support small businesses. “Long-term success in this country depends on high quality education, on stable and high paying jobs, and access to quality health care,” she declared.
Denise L. Majette was born on May 18, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Voyd, a real estate assessor, and Olivia, a teacher. As a teenager during the 1960s and 1970s, Majette said she looked up to pathbreaking Black Representatives Shirley Chisholm of New York and Barbara Jordan of Texas. Majette attended Yale University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in American history in 1976. After college she attended law school, following a decision she had made at the age of 13. “I was very inspired during the civil rights struggles at the way people used the law to effect social change,” she later recalled. “And I wanted to do that, too.” After earning a law degree in 1979 from Duke University Law School, Majette worked as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and later served as an adjunct law professor at Wake Forest University. In 1983, Majette moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia, with her husband Rogers J. Mitchell Jr. and their two sons from former marriages, and accepted a position as a law clerk for Judge R. Keegan Federal at the superior court of DeKalb County. Over the next decade, Majette served as a law assistant to Judge Robert Benham of the Georgia court of appeals, a special assistant attorney general for the state of Georgia, and a partner in an Atlanta law firm. In 1992, Majette became a judge of administrative law for the Georgia state board of workers’ compensation. In 1993, Georgia Governor Zell Bryan Miller appointed Majette as a judge on the state court of DeKalb County, where she served for nearly nine years.
On February 5, 2002, Majette announced her candidacy as a Democrat for a seat in the U.S. House from a suburban Atlanta district held by five-term Democratic incumbent Representative Cynthia A. McKinney. Majette said she decided to run for Congress because she felt McKinney had become disconnected from the issues affecting DeKalb County. The race garnered national attention after McKinney implied that President George W. Bush deliberately ignored pre-September 11 intelligence reports suggesting an imminent terrorist attack and that his bigbusiness supporters profited in the wake of the attacks. Majette criticized her opponent for the remarks and received a strong endorsement from Georgia Senator Zell Miller. Middle-class voters flocked to Majette in the August 20, 2002, primary, joined by Republicans who took advantage of Georgia state law, which allowed voters to switch parties during primaries. Majette captured the nomination with 58 percent of the vote. In the general election, she easily defeated her Republican opponent, Cynthia Van Auken, with 77 percent of the vote.
Majette was sworn into in 108th Congress and immediately felt the weight of her responsibility. “I was just looking around the room and appreciating the kind of work the Congress will have to do and how that will impact the nation and the world,” she said after taking the oath of office. Majette received assignments on the Budget; Education and the Workforce; and Small Business Committees. She also quickly won a seat in party leadership, serving as president of the class of first-term Democrats and as assistant Democratic whip. Majette also chaired the Democratic Caucus’s Task Force on Jobs and the Economy.
During her first year in Congress, Majette sponsored legislation to designate Arabia Mountain in southeast DeKalb County as a national heritage area, a classification that would make the metropolitan Atlanta region eligible for additional federal funding and likely increase tourism. Testifying before the House Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands, Majette called the locale “a living history lesson” and urged the preservation of the “area’s unique heritage for future generations.” As a member of the Small Business Committee, she criticized President Bush’s proposed budget for 2005, which sought to slash the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) budget and lending authority by millions of dollars. She later voted for an amendment to restore funding to the SBA loan program.
Majette fought to protect a variety of federally-funded programs during her term in the House. She believed the Bush administration had failed to adequately fund education initiatives and criticized the President’s record on domestic violence against women. “It saddens me to think that millions of women continue to be abused each year, while this administration sits idly by, taking no initiative and, in some cases, decreasing resources available to battered women,” Majette said. She voted against overhauling Medicare, labeling the Republican-sponsored Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003 a “sham” that failed to include “adequate prescription drug coverage that our mothers and grandmothers absolutely deserve.” In 2003, she joined Democrats Christopher Van Hollen of Maryland and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts in proposing an amendment to increase spending for Head Start. “The program doesn’t just teach children to read,” Majette argued. “It provides nutritional support, it makes sure that children are properly vaccinated at the appropriate time, that parents are also being supported and supportive of the efforts, that children are given the overall support they need. It’s not just about teaching them their colors.”
On March 29, 2004, Majette surprised her House colleagues, and even some of her staff, when she announced her candidacy for the Georgia Senate seat that was being vacated by the retiring Zell Miller. Although Majette lacked the traditional benchmarks in a run for statewide office—a large fundraising network and widespread name recognition—she ran an effective grassroots campaign on a limited budget. Forced into a runoff after failing to win a majority in the primary, Majette went on to capture the Democratic nomination by defeating millionaire businessman Cliff Oxford. The first African-American candidate to earn a nomination for the U.S. Senate from the state of Georgia, Majette lost in the general election, receiving 40 percent of the vote against three-term Republican Representative Johnny Isakson.
“It was a leap of faith for me, another step in my spiritual journey,” Majette remarked after her loss. She expressed no regrets. In 2005, Majette began work as a judge in DeKalb County. A year later, she won the Democratic nomination for Georgia superintendent of schools, a position with oversight of the daily operations of the state’s department of education. She lost in the general election and returned to private practice as a lawyer. In 2014, the Georgia supreme court disbarred Majette for overbilling her clients.