Republican Laurel Lee wins re-election for second term

By FOX 13 News Staff
Published  November 5, 2024 8:05pm EST
FOX 13 News

TAMPA - U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee won re-election Tuesday night, defeating her Democratic opponent, Pat Kemp, 56% to 44%.  

This will be the Republican congresswoman’s second term representing voters in Florida’s U.S. Congressional District 15, which covers portions of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk Counties.

Lee was first elected to the House in 2022, where she currently serves on the House Administration, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.  She is also a member of the Bipartisan Task Force investigating the attempted assassination of Former President Donald Trump.

On issues, Lee has been critical of the Biden-Harris Administration’s border policies.  She supports the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe versus Wade, which ended Federal protection of abortion rights, leaving it up to the 50 states to regulate individually.  Lee says she is pro-life but supports exceptions for cases of rape and incest.

Courtesy: Laurel Lee/Pat Kemp

Lee has a long record of public service dating back to the early 2000s when she worked as an Assistant Public Defender.  She later served as a Federal Prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Middle District of Florida, which includes the Tampa Bay area.  In 2013, Governor Rick Scott appointed her to serve as a Circuit Court Judge in Hillsborough County.  She served as a Judge for six years before becoming Florida’s Secretary of State under the DeSantis administration, in 2019.

Lee, 50, was born in 1974 on Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and she grew up in a large military family.  According to her congressional webpage, she graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Political Science in 1996 and received her law degree from UF in 1999. 

Politics is a family business for Rep. Lee.  She is married to former Florida State Senator Tom Lee, who served as Senate President from 2004 to 2006.  The couple and their three children live in Brandon. 

District 15 is a Republican-leaning district, which covers portions of Eastern Hillsborough County, portions of Pasco County, and western Polk County, including Zephyrhills, Plant City, Lutz, portions of Temple Terrace, Brandon and west Lakeland.  It is a relatively new district, created when Florida received an additional Congressional district based on population growth seen in the 2020 federal census.

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