Renitta Shanbay Shannon (born December 29, 1979) is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republican Party (United States), Repu ...

. In 2016, Shannon defeated a four-term Democratic incumbent. In January 2017, she was sworn into the Georgia State House of Representatives to represent the 84th district. In 2017, she came out as bisexual, making her the first bisexual legislator to serve in the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directl ...

Early life

Shannon was born in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. After college, she worked in business development for a variety of sectors including mental health and financial services. In a 2019 interview, she said that she spent most of her free time as an activist on racial justice, economic justice, criminal justice, and equality issues, including as an organizer for various progressive grassroots organizations.

Career

She defeated incumbent representative Rahn Mayo in the Democratic primaries in 2016, and went on to win the seat unopposed in the 2016 general election. According to Shannon, she ran for office "to fight for policies that truly support women, working people, and people of color" and has written about improving representation and of electing queer black women into public office. In her 2019–2020 term, she was appointed the Chair of the House Democratic Criminal Justice Reform Committee and is a member of the Governmental Affairs, Small Business Development, and Insurance committees positions she continued in for her 2021–2022 term, with the addition of the State Planning and Community Affairs Committee. She ran for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in the 2022 election.

References

External links

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Legislative homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Renitta 1979 births 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American women politicians African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Bisexual women politicians African-American LGBTQ people LGBTQ state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Living people Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives People from Decatur, Georgia Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) American bisexual women American bisexual politicians 21st-century members of the Georgia General Assembly