VAL Demings is believed to be on the shortlist to be Joe Biden’s running mate in his bid for the White House.
Here is more on the second-term Florida congresswoman who has broken “numerous glass ceilings,” according to her bio.
The 63-year-old Florida native served with the Orlando Police Department for 27 years, and was named its first female police chief in 2007.
She started her career as a social worker before joining the department in the early 1980s.
Demings is advocating for police reform in wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
“I am very proud of the persons who are demonstrating in the street,” she told NPR.
“They should be demonstrating police misconduct.”
Demings was first elected to Congress in 2017.
Demings grew up in a two-room home in Jacksonville with her six older siblings.
“I was called the N-word when I was 4 years old,” she told NPR.
“And I can recall not even really understanding what it meant.
“When everybody started laughing and pointing at me, I knew whatever it was, it was not good.”
Her mother worked as a maid and her father as a janitor, and they “instilled in their children a deep respect for hard work, decency, and responsibility,” according to her Congress bio.
“Her chosen field of study was guided by her parents’ lessons and the police procedurals she had watched on TV as a child, which had instilled in her a fundamental sense of right and wrong,” her bio reads.
Jerry Demings, the mayor of Florida’s Orange County, has been married to Val Demings since 1988.
He also served with the Orlando Police Department – making history as well by becoming its first African-American police chief in 1998.
Demings has been busy as mayor this year dealing with the coronavirus crisis.
Jerry and Val met during their early years with the department.
They have three children and five grandchildren.
President Trump will square off against Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday, November 3.
Biden has not named a running mate, but is expected to do so in the days ahead.
There has been a push for Biden to name an African-American woman, and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has removed herself from consideration.
Demings told NPR that “I am willing to serve in any way that I need to.”
“I’ve been on both sides of this issue, as a social worker and as a law enforcement officer. I’ve enforced the laws and now I write them,” she told NPR.
“I think that’s pretty good experience to bring to Congress.”
