After earning a law degree from Georgetown University, Fentrice Driskell returned to her native Florida and became a partner in an Orlando law firm. At the time, the also Harvard graduate thought she would dedicate herself to community service. But that changed dramatically after the 2016 election that saw Donald Trump’s contentious rise to power.
“I felt like the country was becoming more divided. I started thinking, ‘OK, do I have something to offer?’” the representative in the Florida House of Representatives from the 63rd District told Floricua.
First order of business: to augment the number of women in the state’s House of Representatives. “At the time it was fewer than 25% women [and] that seemed to me woefully out of balance,” said Driskell, who was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2018. She has also been unanimously elected as Leader of the Florida House Democratic Caucus for the 2024–2026 term and will be the first Black woman to serve in that role. This means that if Democrats become the majority party in 2024, Driskell would be the speaker of the House.
