Brenda Jones

In April 2020, The Intercept reported that leading up to her 2017 reelection campaign, Jones received campaign contributions from the then-chairman and another board member of First Independence Bank, which runs a loan program for the city's police and fire pension fund. As the city council's representative on the pension fund board of trustees, Jones was directly responsible for the city's contract with the bank. The contributions, made within days of each other in October 2015, totaled over $7,000.

On March 25, 2020, Jones filed to run in the Democratic primary for the 13th Congressional district against Tlaib. On April 2, she announced that she had tested positive for coronavirus.

Jones is the third African-American woman to represent Detroit in Congress. Her term began November 6, 2018, and ended at the conclusion of the 115th United States Congress on January 3, 2019.

During the course of the election campaign, questions arose as to whether Jones could serve in her Detroit City Council post concurrently with serving in Congress, an unprecedented situation up to that point. An opinion by the Detroit Corporation Counsel, written in August 2018, stated that it was likely possible for Jones to legally serve in both capacities based on state law. The Counsel advised that the United States House Committee on Ethics be consulted to clarify federal and House rules.

On December 5, 2017, Representative John Conyers resigned after sexual harassment allegations were made against him and that he had secretly used taxpayer money to settle a harassment claim. A special election was called to replace Conyers and Jones narrowly won the Democratic primary and easily won in the special election. However, in the general election Democratic primary Jones was defeated by Rashida Tlaib. Prior to the general election Jones filed to run as a write-in candidate, causing criticism, and received 633 write-in votes in the election.

In 2005, Jones was elected to the Detroit City Council after placing ninth in the general election where nine seats were available and was reelected in 2009, 2013, and 2017. In 2015, the council voted for her to serve as the President of the Detroit City Council with five voting in favor of her and four voting in favor of incumbent President Saunteel Jenkins.

Brenda B. Jones (born October 24, 1959) is an American politician from Michigan. She is the President of the Detroit City Council, to which she was first elected in 2005, and briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Michigan's 13th congressional district , having succeeded John Conyers, after winning the 2018 special election to fill the remainder of his term after he resigned in December 2017 following allegations of sexual harassment.

Brenda B. Jones was born on October 24, 1959, in Birmingham, Alabama and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan during the Great Migration. She attended public schools in Detroit, where she graduated from Cass Technical High School and later received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Wayne State University.