Laurel Lee | |
---|---|
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 15th district | |
Assumed office January 3, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Scott Franklin (redistricting) |
30th Secretary of State of Florida | |
In office January 28, 2019 – May 16, 2022 | |
Governor | Ron DeSantis |
Preceded by | Mike Ertel |
Succeeded by | Cord Byrd |
Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida | |
In office May 5, 2013 – January 28, 2019 | |
Appointed by | Rick Scott |
Preceded by | Daniel Sleet |
Succeeded by | Thomas Palermo |
Personal details | |
Born | Laurel Frances Moore March 26, 1974 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Tom Lee |
Children | 3 |
Education | University of Florida ( BA, JD) |
Website | House website |
Laurel Frances Lee (née Moore; born March 26, 1974) [1] [2] is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representatives for Florida's 15th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, she was a judge on Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit from 2013 to 2019 and was the 30th Secretary of State of Florida from 2019 to 2022. [3]
Lee began her legal career as an attorney for the Carlton Fields law firm in 2003 before becoming an assistant public defender in 2005. [4] Lee also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida from 2007 until her appointment by then-Governor Rick Scott to a judgeship on the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in 2013. [5] [6] She was unopposed for election to a full six-year term in 2014. [7]
Lee was appointed Florida Secretary of State by Governor Ron DeSantis on January 28, 2019, replacing Mike Ertel, who resigned after less than a month in office when a 2005 photo of him wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume as a Hurricane Katrina victim surfaced. [8] [9]
In October 2020, weeks before the 2020 election, Lee sought to purge felons from voter rolls if they had outstanding court debts. Politico called the move "a surprise, late-hour move that comes after more than 2 million people already have voted in the presidential battleground." Lee's decision was not distributed to the wider public, only to local election officials. [10]
In December 2021, Lee made a criminal referral to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody seeking an investigation into potentially fraudulent signatures collected by Las Vegas Sands in a petition drive to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot for the November 2022 elections that would expand casino gambling. [11]
On May 12, 2022, Lee announced she was resigning effective four days later, seven months before the 2022 election. She did not offer a reason for resigning. [12] On May 17, she announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 15th congressional district in the 2022 elections. [13] She won the general election by a wide margin.
For the 118th Congress: [14]
Lee is married to Tom Lee, a former member of the Florida Senate. They have three children. They live in Brandon, Florida. [15] Lee is Protestant. [16]