Laurel Lee

Laurel Frances Lee (née Moore; born March 26, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representatives for Florida's 15th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, she was a judge on Florida's Thirteenth Judicial Circuit from 2013 to 2019 and was the 30th Secretary of State of Florida from 2019 to 2022.

Legal career
Lee began her legal career as an attorney for the Carlton Fields law firm in 2003 before becoming an assistant public defender in 2005. Lee also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida from 2007 until her appointment by then-Governor Rick Scott to a judgeship on the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in 2013. She was unopposed for election to a full six-year term in 2014.

Florida Secretary of State
Lee was appointed Florida Secretary of State by Governor Ron DeSantis on January 28, 2019, replacing Mike Ertel, who resigned after less than a month in office when a 2005 photo of him wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume as a Hurricane Katrina victim surfaced.

In October 2020, weeks before the 2020 election, Lee sought to purge felons from voter rolls if they had outstanding court debts. Politico called the move "a surprise, late-hour move that comes after more than 2 million people already have voted in the presidential battleground." Lee's decision was not distributed to the wider public, only to local election officials.

In December 2021, Lee made a criminal referral to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody seeking an investigation into potentially fraudulent signatures collected by Las Vegas Sands in a petition drive to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot for the November 2022 elections that would expand casino gambling.

On May 12, 2022, Lee announced she was resigning effective four days later, seven months before the 2022 election. She did not offer a reason for resigning. On May 17, she announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives in FL's 15th congressional district in the 2022 elections. She won the general election by a wide margin.

Committee assignments
For the 118th Congress:
 * Committee on Homeland Security
 * Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection
 * Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security
 * Committee on House Administration
 * Subcommittee on Elections (Chair)
 * Committee on the Judiciary
 * Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
 * Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
 * Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to Oversight

Personal life
Lee is married to Tom Lee, a former member of the Florida Senate. They have three children. They live in Brandon, Florida. Lee is Protestant.