Upsetting a veteran incumbent in the Democratic primary
for a congressional seat from Georgia, Denise L. Majette
coasted to victory in the general election, earning a spot in
the United States House of Representatives for the 108th
Congress (2003–2005). One of five new African-American
Members elected in 2002, Majette described herself as
“pro-choice, anti-death penalty, for protecting rights of
workers and making sure that everyone has access on a level
playing field.”1
Denise L. Majette was born on May 18, 1955, in
Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Voyd Lee and Olivia
Carolyn (Foster) Majette. Growing up, one of her role
models was Shirley Anita Chisholm of New York, the first
Black Congresswoman. Majette attended Yale University,
graduating with a BA in American history in 1976. After
college, she decided to attend law school because of her
anguish over President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in
1963. “I wanted to be able to use the law to effect social
change and make things better for people who otherwise
didn’t have those opportunities,” she later recalled.2 After
earning a JD in 1979 from Duke University Law School,
Majette began her professional career as a staff attorney at
the Legal Aid Society in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
and later served as a clinical 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, to accept
a position as law clerk for Judge R. Keegan Federal at
the superior court of DeKalb County. Over the next two
decades, 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 Atlanta office of the Georgia
state board of workers’ compensation. On June 8, 1993,
Georgia Governor Zell Bryan Miller appointed Majette as
a judge on the state court of DeKalb County. During her
nearly 10 years as a judge, Majette presided over a variety
of court proceedings, including criminal trials, civil cases,
and hearings.3
On February 5, 2002, Majette resigned from the bench,
announcing her candidacy as a Democrat for a seat in the
Georgia congressional district encompassing the suburban
area east of Atlanta. Although she lacked the high profile
of the Democratic incumbent, five-term Representative
Cynthia A. McKinney, Majette said she decided to run
for public office because she felt McKinney had become
disconnected from the issues af fecting 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 big-business supporters profited
in the wake of the attacks. Majette capitalized on the
controversy that surrounded her opponent’s remarks. Also,
she received a strong endorsement from Zell Miller, who
had been elected a United States Senator. 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 58 percent of the vote. In the general
election, she easily defeated her Republican opponent,
Cynthia Van Auken, gaining 77 percent of the vote.4
Upon being sworn in to the U.S. House of
Representatives in January 2003, Majette observed, “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.”5 Majette received assignments on
the Budget; Education and Workforce; and Small Business
Committees and chaired the Democrats’ Task Force on Jobs
and the Economy. She also assumed a leadership role in her
brief tenure in Congress as an Assistant Democratic Whip
and as president of the Democrats’ freshman class.
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 increase tourism and make the metropolitan
Atlanta region eligible for millions of dollars in federal
funding. 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.”6 As a member of the Small Business
Committee, she criticized President Bush’s proposed budget
for fiscal year 2005, citing concerns for the many female and
minority-owned small businesses in her district.
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.7 She also 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.”8 In 2003 she joined two of her Democratic
colleagues, 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.”9
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. Not wanting to miss the
opportunity to run for an open Senate seat, Majette entered
the race despite the absence of a statewide fundraising
network and her lack of name recognition outside the
Atlanta area.10 Forced into a runoff because she did not gain
a majority in the Democratic primary, Majette defeated
millionaire businessman Cliff Oxford by using an effective
grassroots campaign. 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.11
“It was a leap of faith for me, another step in my spiritual
journey,” Majette remarked after her loss.12 She expressed no
regrets. In 2005 Majette began work as a judge in DeKalb
County.13 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.14 She lost by a wide margin in the general
election and returned to private practice as a lawyer.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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