UPDATE (Monday, Jan. 28, 2019): Darryl Thomas stepped down over the weekend. Democratic leaders appointed Movita Johnson-Harrell as the nominee for the March 12 special election.

Democratic ward leaders have selected Darryl Thomas, a Howard University graduate and the owner of Philly Cuts barbershop on Chestnut near 44th, to stand in a special election in March to fill the 190th state House District seat left vacant when former Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown resigned in December.

Thomas has long been vocal on community issues, including zoning, and ran in the Democratic primary for the seat in 2016, losing to Brown.

“I’m not a politician, even though I’m running for office. I’m a social activist,” Thomas, a West Philly native, told West Philly Local during the campaign.

Brown was forced to resign after being convicted of bribery charges. She received 23 months probation.

The selection of Thomas, detailed in a Billy Penn article here, makes him a virtual lock for the seat in the heavily Democratic district that includes Belmont, Carroll Park, Cathedral Park, Mill Creek, Haddington, East Parkside, West Powelton, Strawberry Mansion, Allegheny West and Lehigh West.

Thomas grew up near 46th and Fairmount in the West Philly’s Mill Creek neighborhood. After graduating from Howard, he worked for the Department of Justice before returning home in 1997.

“I don’t like talking about this too much,” Thomas said in that 2016 interview. “But there was an incident that happened in 1995, December 1st , when one of my good friends was killed. And it happened on 40th and Girard. And that’s when I decided, I have to get back home, I have to do something.”

Philly Cuts has become a neighborhood hub since opening 18 years ago.

The special election will be held March 12. It appears Thomas will face Republican Michael Harvey and independents Amen Brown of the Amen Brown Party and Pamela K. Williams of the Working Families Party.