Majette, Denise L. (Denise Lorraine), 1955-

MAJETTE, Denise L., a Representative from Georgia; born in Brooklyn, King's County, N.Y., on May 18, 1955; B.A., Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1976; JD., Duke University, Durham, N.C.,1979; lawyer, private practice; faculty, Wake Forest Law School, Winston-Salem, N.C.; judge, Georgia state court of Dekalb County, Ga., 1993-2002; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Eighth Congress (January 3, 2003-January 3, 2005); not a candidate for reelection in 2004, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate.

<p>Denise Lorraine Majette (born May 18, 1955) is an American politician from the state of Georgia. A Democrat, she represented Georgia's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2005.</p>

<p>Born in Brooklyn, she attended Yale University and completed a Juris Doctor degree at Duke University in 1979. She began her legal career in North Carolina as a Legal Aid staff attorney and a clinical adjunct law professor at Wake Forest University. A resident of the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain since 1983, Majette worked in private law practice before being named an administrative law judge at the Georgia state board of workers' compensation in 1992. The following year, Georgia Governor Zell Miller appointed her judge of the State Court of DeKalb County. Majette held the judgeship for nine years.</p>

<p>She resigned from the judgeship in 2002 to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia's 4th congressional district, which is based in DeKalb County. She defeated 10-year incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary. Majette, who had never run in a partisan contest before, defeated McKinney by a 58% to 42% margin. McKinney had attracted controversy due to her comments after the September 11 attacks. The primary was also influenced by crossover-Republicans—i.e., Republicans who used their ability to vote in a Democratic caucus in Georgia. Majette's upset win was tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic, black-majority district.</p>

<p>After one term in the U.S. House, Majette decided to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Zell Miller, who had been appointed to the seat in 2000 following the death of Republican Paul Coverdell. Miller's decision not to seek a full term in the Senate had caught the Georgia Democrats by surprise. Majette's announcement that she would seek to replace Miller also caught Democrats by surprise, as she was not on anyone's call list when Democrats began seeking a candidate to replace Miller. Further skepticism among Democrats about the viability of her candidacy surfaced when she announced that "God" had told her to run for the Senate.</p>

<p>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.”</p>

<p>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. 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.</p>

<p>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.</p>