At the University of Florida, Schultz was in student government. She was President of the Student Senate as well as founder and President of the Rawlings Area Council Government.[5] She was also a member of the Omicron Delta Kappahonor society, the James C. Grimm chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, and the union Graduate Assistants United. She served as President of the Graduate Student Council.[5] She said that student politics developed her "love for politics and the political process."[6]
Florida House of Representatives
In 1988 Schultz became an aide to Peter Deutsch at the beginning of his state legislative career.[4][7] In 1992, Deutsch won election to the United States House of Representatives, which made his Florida post vacant. Schultz recalled getting a call from Deutsch at the time: "It was really amazing. He called me at home one day in the middle of the legislative session and he said, 'You could run in my race, your house is in my district.'"[7] She had lived in the district for only three years. Schultz then won 53 percent of the vote in a six-way Democratic primary and avoided a runoff.[7] She went on to win the general election and succeeded Deutsch in Florida's House of Representatives. At the age of 26, she became the youngest female legislator in Florida's history.[4][8]
She served in the Florida State House of Representatives for eight years. State term limits required Schultz to leave the House.[4] In addition to her work as a state legislator, she became an adjunct instructor of political science at Broward Community College. She also worked as a public policy curriculum specialist at Nova Southeastern University. She was elected to the Florida State Senate in 2000. She was considered one of the most liberal members of Florida's state legislature. She supported legislation requiring genderprice parity for dry cleaning. She supported bills to require that an equal number of men and women were appointed to state boards. She pushed through several bills including the Florida Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act and one creating a Children's Services Council for Broward County. The Save The Manatee Club gave Schultz an award for her work in the state senate to protect manatees.
Schultz was appointed to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee in her first term in Congress. During the 2006 elections, she raised over seventeen million dollars in campaign contributions for her Democratic colleagues. The only two congressmen to raise more money that year were Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel. Democrats in the House of Representatives chose her to be Chief Deputy Whip. They appointed her to the Appropriations Committee. (This was a very good job for a congresswoman with only two years of experience.)
She is a member of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's "30 Something" Working Group, which consists of congressional Democrats under age 40. The group concentrates on issues affecting young people, including Social Security. She also has joined the bipartisanCongressional Cuba Democracy Caucus. According to the Congress.org 2008 Power Rankings, she was the 24th most powerful member of the House and 22nd most powerful Democratic representative (also most powerful Florida representative).[9]
Chair of the Democratic National Committee
In April 2011, Tim Kaine resigned as Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman in order to run for the United States Senate. On April 5, 2011, President Barack Obama chose Schultz to succeed Kaine as the 52nd Chairman of the DNC. Between Kaine's resignation and the next DNC meeting, current DNC Vice-Chair Donna Brazile served as the interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee. On May 4, 2011, the DNC met and elected Schultz as its chair.[10] Schultz became the third female DNC chief in history and the first in over 15 years.
The Clinton campaign announced the same day that Wasserman Schultz would act as honorary chair of an effort to elect Democrats across the United States in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.[12]
In March 2009, she said that she went through seven surgeries related to breast cancer in 2008, while remaining a member of the House. That year, she promoted efforts for early screening for breast cancer.[2]
↑"Debbie Wasserman Schultz." Carroll's State Directory. Carroll Publishing, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009. Document Number: K2416014764.<http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC>. Fee via Fairfax County Public Library, accessed 2009-04-25.
↑ 2.02.1Doup, Liz (April 5, 2009). "Debbie Wasserman Schultz shows steely resolve in grueling cancer battle. A hectic workload. A young family. And seven cancer surgeries. But Wasserman Schultz keeps going". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Forum Publishing Group. Archived from the original on April 8, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2009. For two weeks, she's hit the stump, talking about her breast cancer battle.The seven surgeries, including a double mastectomy. The nearly nonstop work load. And how she kept it quiet from her children – and constituents and colleagues, telling only about a dozen people, including family and staff.... "I remember how she was only half out of anesthesia and she was on the BlackBerry," says her brother, Steve Wasserman, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, who was with her during the mastectomy. Nine days after that surgery in February 2008, she hosted a fundraiser for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while getting pain medication from a pump hidden in her purse. "I didn't talk about it – I didn't want to talk about it," she says, referring to the cancer. After a doctor removed the lump in her right breast, tests showed a genetic mutation putting her at high risk for a recurrence of breast or ovarian cancer. She didn't hesitate. Her breasts and ovaries had to go. And, yes, she mourned her breasts.
