Edwards, Donna F. (Donna Fern), 1958-

Donna Fern Edwards (born June 28, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 4th congressional district from 2008 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Edwards was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina. She earned B.A. degrees in English and Spanish from Wake Forest University, where she was one of only six black women in the class of 1980. After working for Lockheed Corporation at the Goddard Space Flight Center with the Spacelab program, she attended and earned a J.D. in 1989 from the Franklin Pierce Law Center. Edwards worked for Albert Wynn as a clerk in the 1980s, when he served in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Edwards began her public career with a series of nonprofit advocacy groups. In 1992 she joined Public Citizen and Congress Watch to advocate on consumer issues. Two years later, she moved to the Center for a New Democracy where she worked on campaign finance reform and rose to the position of executive director. In 1996 she helped found and lead the National Network to End Domestic Violence. In 2000 Edwards became the executive director of the Arca Foundation, a social equity and justice advocacy group.

In 2006 Edwards challenged seven-term incumbent Representative Albert Russell Wynn in the Democratic primary for a seat in the United States House of Representatives from Maryland’s Fourth Congressional District. Though she was narrowly defeated, Edwards would go on to defeat Wynn two years later and, following his resignation, Edwards won a special election to fill the remainder of this term. She was sworn in on June 19, 2008, becoming the first African-American woman to represent Maryland in the United States Congress. Edwards ran for a full term in November 2008, winning 85 percent of the vote and was reelected three more times. She ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 in the primary to replace retiring Barbara Mikulski instead of running for re-election to her Congressional seat, but was defeated by Chris Van Hollen in the Democratic primary.