Ted Brown was born in 1960 in Steubenville, Ohio, the grandson of German, Greek and Jewish immigrants. Ted and his parents moved to Wheeling, West Virginia in 1970 and Ted worked in the family business, an Ethan Allen furniture store, through high school. He graduated from Linsly Military Institute in 1978.

Brown attended Wesleyan Univesity in Connecticut for one year, then moved to Los Angeles. He later graduated from UCLA in 1984, earning a B. A. in political science with a concentration in Constitutional Law. Since then he has worked in the insurance industry and currently owns an independent insurance adjusting and investigating business, which specializes in auto, property, general liability and construction defect cases.

Brown joined the Libertarian Party in 1978 and has been active his entire adult life. He has served as California State Chairman, Los Angeles County Chairman and a member of the Libertarian National Committee. He currently serves as a member of State Executive Committee, platform committee chairman, and candidate recruitment chairman.

Since 1986 Ted Brown has written the Libertarian Party's ballot arguments against bond measures in the state and county ballot pamphlets. On many occasions voters have agreed with these arguments, and thus taxpayers have saved over $5.3 billion in principal and interest.

Brown has run for office several times, including Insurance Commissioner in 1990 and 1994. He received 433,000 and 345,000 votes respectively, making him one of the most popular alternative party candidates for any office in California in the last generation.

Ted and his wife Laura, a teacher and native of Wichita Falls, Texas, have been married since 1984. They have a 15-year-old daughter Katie, and are homeowners in an unincorporated area of San Gabriel. The family has lived in the 26th Congressional District for 11 years.