Senator Darius Brown represents the Second Senate District which includes New Castle, Wilmington and Edgemoor. He is committed to expanding economic opportunity by creating pathways out of poverty through restorative justice, workforce competitiveness and infrastructure investment.
Senator Brown has sponsored landmark legislation, including the passage of The Equal Rights Amendment to the state Constitution, The CROWN Act, Juneteenth as a state holiday, and Law Enforcement Body-Worn Cameras. He also sponsored the Adult Expungement Reform Act and the Clean Slate Act to help remove barriers to education, employment and housing for more than 290,000 Delawareans leading the Wilmington News Journal to name him “one of the State house’s champions of criminal justice reform and racial equity.”
Senator Darius Brown is the only African American man serving in the Delaware State Senate. He is a member of the Joint Finance Committee which appropriates the over $7B state budget, Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology Committee and the Chair of the Judiciary Committee maintaining Delaware’s business court and corporate franchise as the best in the country generating a third of the states’ revenue. He also chairs the Elections and Government Affairs committee.
As the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Brown has increased the diversity of the bench with the historic appointment of Delaware’s first African American Supreme Court Justice, along with a record number of White women and African Americans joining the judiciary during his tenure.
Senator Brown is lauded for his bipartisan coalition-building and corporate stakeholder relationships that has resulted in the unanimous passage of the Adult Expungement Reform Act of 2019 and Clean Slate Act of 2021 helping over one in three Delawareans become eligible for the expungement of their criminal records. His public policy development prioritizes restorative justice, and he has continually put forth transformative legislation including a legislative package reforming Delaware’s criminal fines and fees system.
Senator Darius Brown brings his focus on building a strong Delaware economy to the Senate Business, Banking, Insurance and Technology Committee. He has worked to bolster the state’s economic competitiveness and workforce development.
Senator Brown is the curator of the three rivers economic development strategy Opportunity LIVES Here to recruit and retain businesses in the Second Senate District.
“Prosperity and economic growth are not mutually exclusive to corporations and citizens. In Delaware, we have a long history of being able to do both,” said Senator Brown. “I want every business, employer and entrepreneur to know that the first state is the place where opportunity lives.”
Below are just some of the economic development initiatives that Senator Brown has helped usher in to Delaware:
- Delaware Community Investment Venture Fund — Seeded with up to $2.5 million from regulatory fees paid by the banking industry, this state-managed fund will provide much needed capital and other financial services to the black-owned business creating jobs in some of our most historically marginalized communities.
- Bronze Valley Venture Lab — This accelerator program is now providing entrepreneurially minded students from Delaware State University, one of the top three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the nation, with advice, advocacy and access to venture capital in the heart of Delaware’s minority-majority urban center.
- Northeast Wilmington Revitalization Fund — Invested $3M to provide flexible, low-interest loans to Black-owned childcare centers, residential developments, private business that collectively have created 100 jobs in one of Delaware’s most economically depressed communities.
- Delaware Grocery Initiative — Appropriates funding and develops a statewide strategy to combat food insecurity and create a grant program to support businesses and organizations that bring fresh food to underserved communities.
- Talent Dividend — Increased funding appropriated to better align Delaware’s adult basic education programs, vocational training and higher education with the needs of Delaware employers.
Senator Darius Brown has invested over $100M in his district to build new libraries, community centers, affordable housing, and infrastructure investment through the American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Legislative Service:
Senate, 2018 - present
Committees:
- Elections & Government Affairs, Chair
- Judiciary, Chair
- Banking, Business, Information & Technology, Member
- Joint Finance, Member
- Veterans Affairs, Member
Legislative Highlights
SB 31
SB 31- 151st General Assembly Senate Bill 31 adds the words “race, color and national origin” to the state Constitution’s equal rights clause, making the document more inclusive, spelling out protections as described in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. […]
SB 191
SB 191- 151st General Assembly The first leg of an amendment to the Delaware Constitution that would explicitly make protection against discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin a fundamental right. […]
HB 447
HB 447- 151st General Assembly This Act implements some of the recommendations of the African American Task Force’s Safety and Justice Subcommittee. Specifically, it requires that cases or charges that are more than 7 years old be treated as “resolved […]
HB 243
HB 243- 151st General Assembly Prohibits law-enforcement agencies from releasing or publishing or causing to be released or published the name of any juvenile or any image depicting a juvenile, including displaying such image on any publicly maintained social media […]