Jennifer Sullivan (politician)

Jennifer Mae Sullivan (born August 1, 1991) is a Republican politician who currently serves as a member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing the 31st District, which includes the cities of Apopka, Eustis, Mount Dora, Tavares, and Umatilla in northern Lake County and northern Orange County, since 2014.

Jennifer Sullivan
Member of the Florida House of Representatives
from the 31st district
Assumed office
November 4, 2014
Preceded byBryan Nelson
Personal details
Born (1991-08-01) August 1, 1991
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Political partyRepublican
ParentsPatricia Sullivan
Alma materLiberty University
ProfessionYouth development leader

History

Sullivan was born in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and claims that she has completed half the credits at Liberty University towards a degree. However, the registrar of the university says Sullivan was enrolled for a single semester in 2011.[1] She has held a number of jobs, including working at a blueberry farm, as a waitress, and as a babysitter, and campaigned for Amendment 2, an ultimately successful constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in Florida in 2008, and for her mother, Patricia Sullivan, who unsuccessfully ran for the Congress in the Republican primary in 2010 in the 8th congressional district.[2]

Florida House of Representatives

In 2014, incumbent State Representative Bryan Nelson was unable to seek re-election due to term limits, so Sullivan ran to succeed him. She faced Randy Glisson, Terri Seefeldt, Belita Grassel, and Joseph Stephens in the Republican primary, which was an open primary because no other candidates had filed. Sullivan campaigned on her conservative Christian credentials,[2] and attracted support from a number of young volunteers from other states who traveled down to Florida to work on her campaign.[3] The Orlando Sentinel ended up endorsing Grassel, blasting Sullivan in an editorial for being "steeped in tea-party dogmatism that has contributed to polarized governance."[4] Ultimately, in a close campaign, Sullivan emerged narrowly victorious, defeating Glisson by a little more than one thousand votes, winning 35% of the vote to Glisson's 29%, Seefeldt's 19%, Grassel's 14%, and Stephens's 3%, making her the youngest female member of the Florida House in its history.[2]

In November, 2016, Sullivan was re-elected by 73% of the voters of her district.[5]

On March 7, 2018, Sullivan voted yes on SB 7026, establishing waiting periods for firearms purchases and raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21.[6] Sullivan previously promoted her NRA highest rating.[7] In 2016, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Sullivan distributed campaign literature stating she was a "protector of your 2nd Amendment rights."[8] According to Sullivan's profile, hunting is a hobby.[9]

Sullivan has been named by the new House speaker as chairperson of the Florida's House Education Committee for the 2019 session, one of the most powerful House positions. Sullivan never attended public schools or public colleges or universities. Rather, she was home-schooled and briefly attended a private, Christian university. [1]

gollark: Alternatively, somehow 1337 h4xx pyrobot and make it post there for you.
gollark: I think just jiasheng.
gollark: Access level 3, which is now gone since the server has some different weirder permission management scheme.
gollark: https://discord.com/channels/424394851170385921/424397590214344704/744633798238666813
gollark: It may have been fixed now, but several hours ago you *could* leak some information out of there via pls faketext.

See also

References
  1. Ritchie, Lauren. "Unqualified legislator to chair House education committee — nothing could go wrong there, eh?". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  2. Hudak, Stephen (August 30, 2014). "At 23, she's youngest woman elected to Florida Legislature". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  3. Sullivan, Maddie (November 12, 2014). "Jennifer Sullivan makes history as the youngest woman elected to the Florida House of Representatives". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  4. "State House Dists. 30, 31: Editorial". Orlando Sentinel. August 9, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  5. "Florida election results 2016: All races". Orlando Sentinel.
  6. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/7026/Vote/HouseVote_s07026e2859.PDF
  7. http://voteforjennifer.com/jennifer-sullivan-receives-highest-rating-from-florida-right-to-life-and-nra/
  8. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-guns-campaign-20160907-story.html
  9. http://voteforjennifer.com/jennifer/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.