Shontel Brown steps forward
She didn’t ask for the spotlight, but her leadership in the fight over SNAP cuts has made her one of the most-watched Democrats on Capitol Hill.
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Shontel Brown can’t stand cold cuts.
The Ohio Democrat isn’t a fan of pancakes for dinner either.
And the mere sight of a sandwich made with government cheese still takes the 49-year-old back to nights when her family had to stretch every dollar and relied on food stamps while managing her childhood epilepsy.
These revelations came earlier this month during a House Agriculture Committee marathon markup of the GOP’s sweeping reconciliation bill—a proposal to cut trillions from social safety net programs to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts and increase funding for border enforcement and military operations. (Brown is the committee’s second-ranking Democrat.)
Her testimony was among several appearances over the past few weeks that many of the nearly two dozen Democratic members, aides and operatives interviewed for this story pointed to as evidence of what they described as a breakout moment. That stretch culminated in a chaotic legislative week that included multiple all-nighters and an early-morning vote last Thursday to pass the bill along party lines and send it to the Senate. Democrats are expected to oppose it unanimously, as they did in the House.
As Democrats pushed back on the bill’s proposed historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—the nation’s largest federal anti-hunger program—Brown became one of several members who took a lead role in the party’s response. She tied her opposition to personal experience, which many sources said helped distinguish her voice during committee hearings, floor debate and media events focused on the bill.
Sources praised her steady approach and grasp of the policy details during a high-stakes legislative push. They also emphasized that the proposed SNAP cuts come at a time when groceries remain a significant household expense for many families, even as food inflation has slowed.
“People need to know that they have representatives who share their experiences,” Brown said in an interview last week, one of several since Republicans released their budget proposal in February. “Some people get the impression that we’re all Ivy Leaguers and we all come from rich families. I want people to know I am not that. I grew up in the hood. I have real-life struggles that some of my constituents are still dealing with today.”
Brown acknowledged that while she feels blessed to be in her position, she wants people to know that their experience isn’t lost on her.
“I come to the table with that experience because for far too long in this institution, people who are making decisions about folks have not had that experience.”
In separate remarks during the markup, Brown cited several Bible verses in response to Republican colleagues, including Chair GT Thompson (R-Pa.), who is known for opening committee hearings with a prayer.
“I think it’s important too for my colleagues to see that they have colleagues that depended on these services but were able to lift themselves up and become what some might describe as successful,” said Brown, who describes herself as a “Bible-believing Christian.” “These programs are a bridge to getting to that success.”
Thompson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-Minn.) told me that beyond Brown’s willingness to share her personal story, the key to her growing influence is her ability to connect with people and quickly get up to speed on areas of the committee she hadn’t previously worked on.
Brown regularly joins the Democratic staff committee leadership meetings at Craig’s invitation. Craig said Brown’s contributions behind the scenes have been just as impressive as her public performance.
“She’s impressed the hell out of me,” Craig said. “I’m really, really, really developing a great relationship with her.”
Marcia Fudge is another influential Democrat with whom Brown shares a tight bond.
Fudge represented Ohio’s 11th from 2008 until former President Joe Biden tapped her to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2021. (Before Fudge, the district was held by the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who in 1998 became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Ohio.)
Fudge told me she wouldn’t have supported Brown’s candidacy if she didn’t believe she was ready to carry the torch she inherited from Tubbs Jones, a trailblazing public servant who championed health care, education and voting rights for more than nine years until she died in 2008.
“She’s smart, she works hard, she studies, and most importantly, she understands her district, and she fights for it every day,” Fudge said.
Fudge added that much of Brown’s strength comes from the nature of the district—anchored in Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs, and home to a mix of urban, suburban, and industrial communities along Lake Erie.
“A lot of people are in districts where they feel challenged by the people they represent, in terms of not being so vocal on this issue or that issue,” she said. “But Shontel is in a district that supports her, that understands why she’s there and so she has a voice that can be used when sometimes other people can’t speak.”
Roughly one in five residents in Brown’s district live below the poverty line, well above the national average of 12.5 percent and Ohio’s statewide average of 13.3 percent.
“Many people in this district are on food stamps or receive Medicaid and all of the other things that [Republicans] are trying to strip away,” Fudge said. “And she's out there fighting the good fight and I believe that her voice just gets stronger and stronger, because she fights for what is right. It's never about herself. It is about what is right for the people.”
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee’s nutrition subcommittee, counts Brown as both a colleague and a friend. Their relationship grew through committee work, and it’s now rare to see one without the other en route to votes, hearings or weekly Congressional Black Caucus meetings.
“She’s a real friend. She takes relationships seriously,” Hayes told me. “We just care deeply about [SNAP] and know how it affects our constituents. And we’ve both personally been affected, so we’ve been on the receiving end of this, and literally understand how sometimes people just need someone to stand in the gap.”
The House-passed bill calls for a $290 billion cut from SNAP over 10 years, exceeding the Agriculture Committee’s reconciliation target. It would require states to begin covering a share of SNAP benefits starting in 2028, beginning at five percent and rising to as much as 25 percent for states with higher error rates, shifting significant costs to state budgets. The legislation also increases documentation requirements, which analysts warn could depress participation in the program.
More than 50,000 people in Brown’s district are at risk of losing some or all of their SNAP benefits, according to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Statewide, more than 450,000 Ohioans could be affected. Nationwide, the number climbs to 11 million.
While the measure also includes agricultural support enhancements, crop insurance reforms, conservation program adjustments and funding for organic and specialty agriculture, it’s the stricter work requirements—particularly a new mandate for parents with children as young as seven to work or volunteer at least 20 hours per week to retain benefits—that drew Brown’s sharpest rebuke.
“Since when is a first grader not a dependent child? That is what we’re debating here,” Brown said during House Rules Committee debate over an amendment she offered to strike the provision. “This isn’t about waste, fraud or abuse, and we all know it. So I’d like to invite the Republicans on this panel to explain to me, to my colleagues and to the American people, how exactly does taking food away from struggling families with young children make this country safer, stronger, more secure, healthier or even great again?” (Brown offered the same amendment during the Agriculture Committee markup, but Republicans voted it down.)
Brown and her Democratic colleagues have argued that many SNAP recipients are already working—often in low-wage or unstable jobs—and rely on the program to supplement their income and ensure food security.
In 2018, more than three-quarters of families receiving SNAP benefits had at least one employed adult, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About one-third included two or more workers. And among households with children and a working-age, non-disabled adult, 89 percent had earnings in the year they received SNAP, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“[My mom] didn’t wake up wanting to be on food stamps. She didn’t wake up wanting to have a daughter who had unpredictable medical conditions that prevented her from keeping a regular job,” Brown said. “But thank God for those food stamps. Thank God for those pancakes for dinner. Thank God for those syrup sandwiches. Thank God for those toasted cheese sandwiches.”
She added that the GOP megabill punishes poverty rather than addressing the systemic disadvantages that make assistance necessary in the first place.
“And now you want to take things like that away from people who need them, who depend on them, who are just trying to get by because of systemic, structural, institutional barriers that have put many people in impoverished conditions that they did not decide to be a part of, but because of the systems that we are still utilizing to oppress people are in place when we could be giving them a helping hand?”
Brown didn’t confine her objections to the committee room. In a fiery speech on the House floor ahead of final passage, she called out Republicans for shifting SNAP costs to state budgets while extending tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Let’s be clear, Republicans are paying for massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires by cutting $300 billion from SNAP,” Brown said. “But instead of owning those cuts, Republicans are punting their problems to the states, forcing governors and legislators to do the dirty work of denying food assistance. That’s not fiscal responsibility. That’s political cowardice.”
She pointed to projected cost burdens in red and blue states—up to $15 billion in Florida, $7.5 billion in Ohio, $4.5 billion in Louisiana. If states can’t pick up the tab, she warned, they’ll either have to slash benefits or kick people off the program altogether.
“This plan will take away food from kids, working families, veterans, seniors and the disabled,” she said. “Even Republicans know how damaging this is. That’s why they delayed implementation—until after the next election.”
Rep. Greg Landsman, a fellow Democratic colleague from Ohio, offered Brown’s committee and floor speeches rave reviews.
“This fight is in her core. Shontel’s energy and just how compelling she’s been in this moment comes, in large part, from her lived experience,” he said in a statement. “She knows this pain. All I know is that I was out of my seat, on my feet and moved by every word of that floor speech Wednesday night.”
Brown also gave a special-order speech days earlier, sharing the story of a constituent from Cleveland Heights to illustrate the bill’s real-world stakes.
“Cheryl is a retired small business owner who ran an advertising company with her husband for 25 years,” Brown said. “She lives with chronic respiratory issues and arthritis. Her husband is disabled. She also takes care of her 90-year-old father, who is disabled too. None of them can work, and they depend on SNAP and Medicaid to survive. If Congress guts these programs, it would gut a lifeline for Cheryl and her family.”
Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) told me Brown’s performance during the SNAP fight didn’t go unnoticed.
“She was tenacious fighting back against the SNAP cuts in Ag and in the floor,” McClellan said. “She was one of the most effective voices talking about the impact of those cuts on people and families.”
House Republicans have defended the proposed changes as both fiscally responsible and morally grounded. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said the work requirements carry a “moral component,” intended to restore the “dignity of work,” particularly among young men. GOP leaders insist the reforms apply only to non-disabled adults without dependents and reflect the values of many working-class Americans who view safety nets as temporary, not permanent.
Republicans have also dismissed Democratic criticism of the bill as fear-mongering. While none of the 10 Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation responded to requests for comment—including three who serve on committees with Brown—their party’s messaging suggests they see the legislation not as a gutting of nutritional aid, but a course correction. Democrats like Brown, they argue, are exaggerating the bill’s consequences for political gain.
Brown’s rise is also a reflection of Hakeem Jeffries’s leadership style. The House Minority Leader encourages feedback and fosters member ownership—a notable departure from the more centralized, top-down approach that defined former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s two decades atop the House Democratic Caucus.
“Shontel Brown has helped lead the battle to protect the American people from devastating Republican cuts to nutritional assistance for children, seniors and veterans. Her strong advocacy, drawing on her experience as a SNAP beneficiary during childhood, has made a big difference in our effort to oppose the GOP Tax Scam,” the Brooklyn Democrat told me in a statement. “Rep. Brown stands on the shoulders of a long line of incredible leaders who have served Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, like Lou Stokes, Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Marcia Fudge, who helped mentor me during my early days in Congress. I am grateful that Shontel has picked up the baton to serve in Congress with intellect, dedication and passion on behalf of the people she is privileged to represent.”
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Brown got her start in elected office on the Warrensville Heights City Council in 2012 and joined the Cuyahoga County Council two years later, where she established a reputation as a consensus-oriented leader focused on jobs, health care and education. Before entering politics, she worked in marketing and ran a small business that provided tech solutions to regional clients.
“She was killing it before she came to Congress. Her word is her bond. She’s not looking for accolades. It’s almost like you don’t even realize it just happened,” Hayes told me of Brown’s impact. “People are like, whenever she speaks, ‘Oh my goodness’ and I’m like, ‘Welcome, you’re just now seeing this?’ She does the work, makes the connections and can move in any room.”
The Democratic primary in the 2021 special election to replace Fudge became a national proxy battle over the party’s direction. Brown, then a county council member and chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, represented the centrist wing and secured endorsements from national figures like Hillary Clinton and then–House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking Black member of Congress at the time and long regarded as a Democratic kingmaker.
Her main opponent, Nina Turner, a former state senator and prominent progressive, had the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other national progressive leaders. Despite Turner’s early edge in polling and fundraising, Brown’s message of pragmatic governance and party unity resonated with voters. She won the August primary and defeated the Republican nominee in the November general election with nearly 79 percent of the vote.
Once sworn in, Brown got to work on constituent engagement and youth empowerment. She established a youth advisory council to give high school students firsthand exposure to public service and the legislative process, culminating in a capstone project where participants presented policy proposals on health inequities and education reform.
Beyond youth initiatives, her office held satellite office hours and launched a small business advisory council to support local enterprises—while overseeing the everyday demands of congressional casework, including federal agency assistance, grant support and community recognition.
Brown secured her first full term in Congress the following year by decisively defeating Turner in a high-profile rematch. With backing from former President Biden and significant outside spending from groups like the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, Brown expanded her margin of victory in the primary. Her campaign emphasized pragmatic governance and party unity.
Turner, by contrast, struggled to regain early momentum amid waning progressive support and internal divisions within the Congressional Progressive Caucus over endorsements. Brown went on to win the general election with 77 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic district. (Turner did not respond to an interview request for this story.)
In 2023 and 2024, Brown scaled up her early efforts, focusing on constituent services, community investment, and legislative follow-through. Her office closed more than 1,650 constituent cases, returning over $4 million to residents and helping secure more than $1.5 billion in federal grants and contracts for local projects, including $94 million for clean energy infrastructure at the Port of Cleveland and $59 million for the North Coast Connector lakefront project.
She introduced or co-sponsored legislation to expand SNAP access, fund uterine fibroid research, safeguard reproductive rights and strengthen Social Security. She also maintained an active public presence in the district, hosting housing and small business expos, health care and internet access events and public forums featuring cabinet secretaries and community stakeholders.
Now in her second full term, Brown serves on the powerful House Oversight Committee—a panel freshly in the spotlight as Democrats prepare to select a ranking member next month to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who led the committee this Congress until his death last week following a battle with esophageal cancer. On Oversight, Brown focuses on economic growth and regulatory policy. She also sits on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, more commonly known as the China Select Committee.
Brown remains deeply involved in agricultural policy, where, in addition to her vice-ranking duties on the full committee, she serves as the top Democrat on the General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit Subcommittee—a key perch as Democrats navigate negotiations over the next farm bill. She also sits on the subcommittees overseeing nutrition and foreign agriculture.
Fudge, who served on the Agriculture Committee during her time in the House, said Brown has become an important voice for preserving SNAP and other anti-hunger programs as some Republicans push to split them off from the farm-focused portions of the bill.
“If you do that, so many of our children will starve,” Fudge told me.
Brown’s caucus affiliations reflect the ideological breadth of the modern Democratic coalition. She is a member of both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the New Democrat Coalition, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus, Democratic Women’s Caucus, Reproductive Freedom Caucus and numerous regional and issue-based task forces—including those focused on gun violence prevention and the Great Lakes.
Brown is one of five Democrats in Ohio’s House delegation, alongside former CBC Chair Joyce Beatty; Landsman, who flipped a longtime red seat in 2022 by defeating a 13-term Republican incumbent; Emilia Sykes, a second-generation lawmaker whose family held an Akron-area statehouse seat for four decades; and Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in congressional history.
“We come from the heart of America. We are not people who don’t understand what everyday people deal with. We are from the Midwest,” Fudge, who also offered a nod to the Republican side of the delegation, said. (For example, Jim Jordan is the House Judiciary chair and was under consideration for speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted in 2023 and JD Vance represented the state in the Senate before becoming vice president.) “Ohio members are from rural communities and urban communities. But those of us from urban communities, we see it all.”
As for why Brown and her colleagues tend to fly under the national radar?
“It’s our Midwestern humility,” Sykes said with a smile earlier this month.
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That may help explain why, based on my reporting, it doesn’t seem like Brown sought the spotlight that’s found her—and surely didn’t intend to become the subject of this profile.
But she is aware of the moment. Craig is retiring to run for the Senate, opening the top Democratic spot on the Agriculture Committee. It seems reasonable that Brown would consider a bid for the gavel next Congress.
She’s also deeply aware of the legacy she carries—invoking Fudge, Tubbs Jones, Shirley Chisholm and Sheila Jackson Lee as trailblazers during our most recent interview.
“Government doesn’t always move as fast as we want,” Brown told me. “It is not lost on me that I am one of probably less than 60 Black women who have represented in this space, and so I recognize the responsibility. But I didn’t get here by myself.” (60 Black women have served in Congress in U.S. history, including both voting and non-voting members.)
For now, Brown appears focused on the near-term fight to defeat the GOP’s reconciliation bill—and the longer-term goal of helping Democrats reclaim the House majority, two priorities that aren’t mutually exclusive.
Democrats view the proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid—up to $880 billion in the megabill—as the biggest threat to the social safety net since Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act during President Donald Trump’s first term.
But the fight isn’t just policy. It’s unfolding amid a broader identity crisis inside the party after losing the Senate and White House and failing to win back the House in 2024. Some Democrats are calling for generational change. Others are rethinking strategy altogether.
What remains true is that Black women continue to be the party’s most loyal coalition, even as they remain vastly underrepresented in positions of power. While 92 percent of Black women voters backed Vice President Kamala Harris, there are just two Black women CEOs among the Fortune 500 (0.4 percent), and only 29 Black women in the House, two of whom are non-voting delegates (6.6 percent). Two Black women serve in the Senate (two percent), despite Black women making up nearly eight percent of the U.S. population.
Few sources were willing to speculate on the record about Brown’s political ceiling. But many agreed that her role in the SNAP fight is emblematic of what Black women have always done: Spot a problem, step up and lead—often without fanfare and rarely with any guarantee of recognition.
“Black women in particular, and Shontel as well, have to have some courage to stand up. And most Black women have it,” Fudge said. “There are not a lot of things that we would shy away from or back away from if we think it is right.”
That courage matters in this moment—when diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack, when Harris’s failed campaign is being post-mortemed and when Democrats are again debating who they are. Brown and her lived experience are a proxy in that conversation.
But as the 2024 election made clear, Democrats will need support from more than just Black women to reclaim power, including disillusioned voters across the ideological and demographic spectrum.
“Folks may not be into politics, but politics is into them every day—and that is the power of their vote,” Brown said. “Regardless of what party affiliation you ascribe to, whatever religion, whether you’re rich or Black, white, gay, straight, Democrat or Republican, you all get one vote. From GED to PhD, we all get one vote.”
Brown told me her message to her community now is that neglecting to have their voices heard doesn’t just harm their health, wealth, and well-being—it damages American democracy itself.
“I hope that beyond the people I represent, that they see that the system can work,” she said. “But we got to work it.”
Whatever comes next for Brown, Fudge is confident her village will be with her.
“One of the things as well that makes her strong is knowing that there’s so many behind her that have her back and that are cheering for her and rooting for her and wanting her to succeed,” Fudge said. “It is important to know that you have people that you can count on, and she is fortunate and blessed to have many people—her family, friends, constituents, people who have her back—and I’m one of them.”