U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., was elected last week to serve as one of the co-chairs of the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), formerly the Democratic Women’s Working Group, a caucus of more than 90 congresswomen.
Frankel, U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., will lead the DWC as co-chairs while U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Tex., and U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-NM, will serve as the vice chairs.
“With more women in Congress than ever before, the Democratic caucus has never been stronger,” Frankel and the new leadership team said in a statement released on Thursday. “The new leadership of the Democratic Women’s Caucus stands united in the common purpose of improving the lives of all families by advocating for equal pay for equal work, access to health care, paid family and medical leave, affordable, quality child care, retirement security, combating workplace harassment, and much more. Despite every effort by this administration to take us backwards, our voices remain loud as we keep fighting to push forward on women’s hard-earned rights.”
This is the second major plum assigned Frankel garnered on Capitol Hill in the first three months of 2019. Back in January, as the Democrats took over the House, Frankel was named to the powerful U.S. House Appropriations Committee.
Winning a fourth term in November without facing opposition in the general election, Frankel has a pretty lengthy resume in Florida politics, having won a Florida House seat back in 1986. Moving up the ladder in Tallahassee, Frankel served in the Democratic leadership before rolling the dice on a congressional bid in 1992. She won the first round of the primary but was beaten by Alcee Hastings in the runoff.
After losing to Hastings, Frankel looked to get back to Tallahassee, but her former aide Mimi McAndrews was holding her old seat. Frankel bested McAndrews in an ugly primary battle back in 1994 and went on to serve four more terms in the House, eventually rising to become Democratic leader.
Frankel turned her attention to local politics, serving two terms as mayor of West Palm Beach. She won impressively both times, including besting Mayor Joel Daves in the Democratic primary. Even before redistricting in Tallahassee, Frankel set her sights on running for Congress. In 2012, Frankel beat Kristin Jacobs in the Democratic primary to face Hasner in the general election. Republicans had high hopes for Hasner but Frankel beat him by 9 percent. She has moved up the ladder since then, holding a leadership post in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) “Red to Blue” program and co-chaired the Congressional Women’s Caucus in 2017 and 2018.
Frankel shows no signs of slowing down and is already fundraising for her reelection effort next year. Businessman Victor Garcia is running for the Republican nomination in this solidly Democratic district.
