Before getting into politics Carl Brewer worked in the aircraft industry for over 30 years. First as a sheet metal worker and a union steward. Later, he worked in the management department at Spirit AeroSystems. From 2001 to 2007, Brewer served in the Wichita city council from District 1. In 2004, he ran in a special election to replace state senator Rip Gooch, but was defeated by
Donald Betts. In 2007, he was elected mayor of Wichita becoming the city's second elected black mayor, as A. Price Woodard Jr. was selected by the city council to serve as mayor for one term in 1970. On February 20, 2017, he announced that he would run for the Democratic nomination in Kansas'
gubernatorial election and selected Chris Morrow, the mayor of
Gardner, Kansas, to run for the lieutenant gubernatorial nomination. However, he was defeated by state senator
Laura Kelly. Brewer served on Kelly's transition team after she defeated Republican nominee
Kris Kobach in the general election. Kelly appointed him to serve on the Governor's Council on Tax Reform. In 2019, he and
Robert G. Knight appeared in a commercial asking for Lyndy Wells to launch a write-in campaign for the
2019 Wichita mayoral election. ==Death==