REPRESENTING A DEMOCRACY.
All states in the United States of America has a mandate to elect two senators regardless of their population. The senior senator of Florida is senator Marco Rubio (Marco Rubio, n.d.). Marco Rubio’s junior senator is senator Rick Scott, both from the republican party (Biography, n.d.). The state is represented by a total of twenty-seven representatives in the USA house of representatives and I will be discussing representative Val Demings as the representative of interest.
Val Demings represents Florida in the 10th congressional district in the house of representatives. Among the 27 representatives, I picked on her because her being a strong black woman and able to represent the state in the house of representatives interests me. She served on the homeland security committee and government reforms and oversight committee (About, 2019). She also served in the police department of Orlando from 2007-2012 as the first female chief of police in Orlando.
Born in Jacksonville, Val was the last of her seven siblings. She was born at a time when her parents and siblings lived in a wooden-framed house that only had two rooms. Her parents worked as casual workers to help provide for the family. Her mother, Elouise worked as a maid while her father, James, served as a janitor. Her parents did all that they could to support the family. By so doing, the parents instilled the value of hard work among the seven children.
Val was a hardworking young and black lady who took lessons from her parents on the value of hard work seriously. She managed to get herself a job at the age of fourteen years and went on to be the first from her family to graduate from a college (About, 2019). This made her parent extremely proud of her. She graduated with a B.S in Criminology. Val Demings graduated from Florida State University.
Val Demings started her career as a social worker serving the needs and care of the foster children in her hometown of Jacksonville. She was inspired to join the police force despite seeing very few women in this field. Few women occupied the law enforcement ranks and this did not hinder her from chasing the dream (About, 2019). She moved to Orlando in the 1980s to join the Orlando police force and graduated from the police academy with top honors. By the time of her graduation, she served as the president of her class.
Graduating with these top honors, Val Demings was awarded the Board of Trustees Award to acknowledge her outstanding excellence. This recognition earned her a reputation of a serious with the job and no-nonsense police officer. With this no-nonsense cop reputation among other reputations she got, Val worked her way to the higher ranks while raising a family at the same time.
Val served in Orlando’s police force for twenty-seven years. During her tenure, she served in almost all the departments in the organization. Among the positions, she served while in the force, Val served as the Commander of the Special Operations. While serving at this position, Val had a task to offer security to some of the state’s top profile citizens. Besides the state’s high profiles, Val was responsible for offering protection at the special events in the state and protect the dignitaries.
Val was appointed as the Chief of Police in 2007, making history as the first-ever female to serve in that position. Is that not interesting? Her leadership was dynamic and received a lot of praise. During her tenure, crime rates in Orlando significantly dropped. She also helped sharpened the financial crisis the department faced despite the financial constraints. While serving as the Chief of Police, the crime rate in Orlando reduce by almost 40% (About, 2019). She launched Operation free Palms that was aimed at rebuilding crime-ridden Palms apartments, a policy that led to improved life quality in Orlando. She is married to Jerry Demings, the Orange County Sheriff, and has three sons and five grandchildren.
Representative Val was nominated by the democratic party for the house of representative for Florida house in 2012 elections but lost narrowly to Webster by 51% to 48%. Val then won the party nominations on August, 30, and later won the general election the same year with 65% of the votes (About, 2019). She went unopposed in the 2018 reelection campaigns and recaptured her seat. Val is the third Democrat to ever win an Orlando-based district.
Val also sits in other top committees, something that makes me admire her more. She serves as a member of the New Democratic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and Women Caucus. She is also the Assistant and Regional Whip serving for the House Democratic Caucus. From the latest news, Val Demings is reportedly considered as Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 presidential race (About, 2019). Val’s policies include allowing women to serve military combat roles and allowing transgender to compete in athletic events. Val believes that every person has a right and potential to serve in whatever position they are interested in, just like her, and that when given an opportunity, they can deliver. Val is against gender discrimination and strongly feels like everyone deserves a chance despite the gender.
References
About. (2019, September 7). U.S. Representative Val Demings. https://demings.house.gov/about
Biography. (n.d.). SENATOR RICK SCOTT. https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/biography
Marco Rubio. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marco-Rubio