Joint Center Releases Statement Strongly Supporting Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s Bid to Chair the House Agriculture Committee 

For Immediate Release
Nov. 12, 2026 

Contact:
Kennedy Fortner, kennedy.fortner@jointcenter.org 

 Joint Center Releases Statement Strongly Supporting Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s Bid to Chair the House Agriculture Committee 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s (D-OH) bid to chair the House Agriculture Committee in the 120th Congress, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies issued the following statement strongly supporting her bid:   

“As President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, I strongly support Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s bid to chair the House Agriculture Committee in the 120th Congress,” said Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “Few committees affect Black families as directly as this one. Its work on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the farm bill, and oversight of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shapes food security, rural opportunity, and the long fight to address USDA’s discrimination against Black farmers.”  

Congresswoman Brown has served on the Committee since she arrived in Congress nearly five years ago, and she is now its Vice Ranking Member. She represents a Cleveland district with a long tradition of anti-hunger advocacy. She has insisted that food and farm priorities ‘should not be in competition,’ a principle that matters greatly now. Last year’s reconciliation law cut SNAP by nearly 30 percent, and the Joint Center has documented how heavily those cuts fall on Black households. She has also taken her work to farm country, from roundtables with growers in Mississippi’s Rice Belt to meetings with farmers in Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, and Hawaii. She has earned support across the coalition, including from outgoing top Democrat Angie Craig (D-MN) and the Ohio Farm Bureau.  

Asante-Muhammad added, “This moment calls for her leadership. Voters have just given the new House majority a clear mandate to lower the cost of living, and food prices are at the center of that concern. Congresswoman Brown’s agenda of affordability, accountability, and coalition-building speaks directly to families struggling with grocery bills, to communities hurt by SNAP cuts, and to farmers facing rising costs and uncertainty. Putting her in charge of the Agriculture Committee would place an effective coalition-builder at the head of one of the most consequential committees in Congress. It would also affirm that the voters who helped deliver this majority will be represented where food and farm policy is made. I urge her colleagues to support her.”  

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About the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies 

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, America’s Black think tank, provides compelling and actionable policy solutions to eradicate persistent and evolving barriers to the full freedom of Black people in America. We are the trusted forum for leading experts and scholars to participate in major public policy debates and promote ideas that advance Black communities. We use evidence-based research, analysis, convenings, and strategic communications to support Black communities and a network of allies.