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Debbie Wasserman Schultz Biography Quotes 33 Report mistakes

33 Quotes
Born asDeborah Wasserman
Occup.Politician
FromUSA
BornSeptember 27, 1966
Forest Hills, New York, United States
Age59 years
Early Life and Education
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, born Deborah Wasserman on September 27, 1966, grew up in New York City before her family settled on Long Island. She moved to Florida to attend the University of Florida, where she earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in political science. At UF she became active in student government and state-level Democratic politics, experiences that connected her with mentors and future colleagues and set the foundation for a life in public service.

Entry Into Public Service
After graduate school, she worked as a legislative aide to Peter Deutsch, then a rising Florida Democrat. That apprenticeship gave her an early view of how policy affects local communities and how to build coalitions to move bills through committees. In 1992, at the age of 26, she won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives, becoming one of the youngest women elected to the legislature. From 1993 to 2001 she focused on education, child welfare, and consumer protection, developing a reputation for exhaustive preparation and attention to constituent needs. In 2001 she moved to the Florida Senate, where she continued to emphasize pragmatic deal-making across committee lines to deliver results for South Florida.

U.S. House of Representatives
When Peter Deutsch vacated his congressional seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2004, Wasserman Schultz won election to represent a South Florida district anchored in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. She took office in January 2005 and has been reelected repeatedly. In Washington she aligned with House Democratic leadership, working closely with Nancy Pelosi as a regional and then a chief deputy whip, and serving on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Her appropriations work has included veterans services, public health, and investments in local infrastructure, including Everglades restoration and flood resilience vital to her coastal district.

She built a profile on women's health, workplace equality, and gun violence prevention. A breast cancer survivor, she led the EARLY Act to expand breast cancer education and screening for young women, which was incorporated into federal law. She also co-chaired the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Breast Cancer and pressed for robust NIH funding. After the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, she worked with families and local leaders to advance gun safety measures, elevating the concerns of students and parents who became national voices.

Chair of the Democratic National Committee
In 2011 President Barack Obama backed her selection as chair of the Democratic National Committee, succeeding Tim Kaine. As DNC chair, she focused on fundraising, state party infrastructure, and voter protection, guiding the party through Obama's 2012 reelection. The 2016 presidential primaries brought intense scrutiny. Leaked internal emails fueled criticism from supporters of Bernie Sanders, who alleged institutional bias toward Hillary Clinton. Amid the controversy, and days before the party's convention, Wasserman Schultz announced she would step down as DNC chair; Donna Brazile was named interim chair. She continued her congressional campaign, defeated a well-funded primary challenge, and returned to the House. The episode underscored the strain between party governance and grassroots movements during a transformational period in Democratic politics, even as longtime allies such as Obama, Clinton, and Pelosi publicly thanked her for years of work.

Advocacy and Policy Priorities
Across her career, Wasserman Schultz has emphasized issues that intersect national policy and South Florida's daily life. She has supported comprehensive immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, reproductive freedom, and measures to strengthen small businesses. As one of the most prominent Jewish members of Congress, she has been active on U.S.-Israel relations and broader Middle East policy, navigating difficult votes while engaging community leaders at home. She has also been a consistent voice for climate resilience funding, coastal protection, and modernization of water management systems as sea-level rise and extreme weather threaten her region's economy.

In the House, she has worked with colleagues across the aisle when possible, while maintaining close ties to Democratic leadership. During the Biden administration, she has supported legislative efforts on infrastructure, manufacturing, veterans care, and public health, highlighting how federal investments translate into jobs and services for her constituents.

Personal Life
Wasserman Schultz is married to Steve Schultz, and they have three children. Her recovery from breast cancer reshaped her public voice, leading to national advocacy for early detection and patient education. She wrote about those experiences and her broader philosophy of public service in a book that blended memoir with policy arguments, using her platform to encourage civic participation among young people and families. She resides in Broward County, Florida, and remains closely involved with local schools, synagogues, and community organizations.

Legacy and Influence
Debbie Wasserman Schultz's career spans local organizing, state policymaking, party leadership, and national legislating. The figures around her have reflected each stage: early mentorship under Peter Deutsch, legislative alliances with Nancy Pelosi and House colleagues on appropriations, collaboration with Barack Obama during the DNC years, and engagement with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters during a turbulent primary season. Despite the sharp divisions of contemporary politics, she has maintained focus on constituent services and long-horizon investments in health care and resilience. Her tenure illustrates the opportunities and risks of straddling party leadership and congressional service, and her advocacy on women's health and community safety has left a durable imprint on both Florida and the national agenda.

Our collection contains 33 quotes who is written by Debbie, under the main topics: Justice - Leadership - Freedom - Hope - Nature.

33 Famous quotes by Debbie Wasserman Schultz

"And I think we need a combination of a freeze, potentially, and also we need to sit down with the - with the banking industry and talk to them about ways in which we can help them be able to work those mortgages out, because it's absolutely imperative that we keep people in their homes"
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"So the tough questions that have been asked of Sarah Palin thus far just have been about the fact that she doesn't know anything and isn't ready to be vice president. That's fair game and it has nothing to do with her gender"
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"Breast cancer is not just a disease that strikes at women. It strikes at the very heart of who we are as women: how others perceive us, how we perceive ourselves, how we live, work and raise our families-or whether we do these things at all"
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"With the recent news that the State of Florida has agreed to purchase 181,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land, we have an historic opportunity for our larger restoration efforts and for the people of Florida. This too will not come without difficult challenges, but it reminds us that anything is possible"
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"We're going to need to absorb some pain. The Republicans want to pile all the pain on people who can least afford it and the middle class and Democrats under his leadership want to make sure that we can address deficit reduction and continue to make investments and shared sacrifice is going to be imperative in order to be able to do that"
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"I have to admit, like so many women, I always knew there was a chance. But like so many women, I never thought it would be me. I never thought I'd hear those devastating words: 'You have breast cancer.'"
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"Every woman needs to know the facts. And the fact is, when it comes to breast cancer, every woman is at risk"
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"If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars. They would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes"
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"Both referred to the Affordable Care Act, which is the accurate title of the health care reform law, as 'Obamacare.' That is a disparaging reference to the President of the United States, it is meant as a disparaging reference to the President of the United States"
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"Really it's hard to know where the Republican Party ends and the Tea Party begins"
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"President Obama is making the tough decisions to get our country going in the right direction, has taken our economy from job losses to 15 straight months of job gains, cut taxes 26 times, and focused like a laser on getting the middle class back on its feet while those campaigning to replace him have failed to show they can lead on these issues"
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"Last year, I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of legislation that would increase federal judges' salaries by more than 40 percent. It also built in a cost of living adjustment, so the Judicial Branch would not be dependent on the Legislative Branch for increases each year"
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"Diversity on the bench is critical. As practitioners, you need judges who 'get it!' We need judges who understand what discrimination feels like. We need judges who understand what inequality feels like. We need judges who understand the subtleties of unfair treatment and who are willing to call it out when they see it!"
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"The economic recession in America wasn't caused by bad luck; it was caused by bad Republican policies. But the Republican candidates are doubling down on the same flawed policies that led to the loss of 3.6 million jobs in the final months of 2008 and gravely affected middle class families across America"
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"We have to change course. And we have to do so now. That is why I worked with my colleagues in Washington to pass the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act"
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"We do not need to end Medicare. We don't need to throw people who are younger than 55 years old to the wolves which is what we do"
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"This sordid affair has become an unacceptable distraction for Representative Weiner, his family, his constituents and the House - and for the good of all, he should step aside and address those things that should be most important - his and his family's well-being"
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"The fact is, when it comes to economic leadership, the Republicans have nothing to brag about. This isn't what the American people want. They want to see progress that works for them"
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"Democrats are going to proudly run on the fact that we turned the economy around. It was our policies under President Obama's leadership through the Recovery Act, through investing in the automobile industry"
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"We certainly could have voted on making the middle-class tax cuts and tax cuts for working families permanent had the Republicans not insisted that the only way they would support those tax breaks is if we also added $700 billion to the deficit to give tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. That's what was really disturbing"
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"We can never, ever say it enough: every woman - especially every young woman-has to take charge of her health... and do what's right for her!"
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"Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House right now seems to have been strangled by the tea party"
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"To be clear, climate change is a true 800 pound gorilla in the room. The effects of global warming threaten global environmental upheaval over the coming century. But for South Florida and the Everglades, it could be our death knell if urgent action is not taken"
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"All too often in tough economic times, it is the environment that gets left on the cutting room floors of Congress as everyone scraps for limited federal dollars"
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"It is with great disappointment that I call on Representative Anthony Weiner to resign. The behavior he has exhibited is indefensible and Representative Weiner's continued service in Congress is untenable"
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"Even though I don't agree with either Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann on virtually anything, I do think the unique scrutiny - because of their gender and highlighting the potential conflict between them is a product of the media's desire for juicy storylines. I think it's inappropriate"
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"We've been sitting at the compromise table for a long time. We're just waiting for that cold chair to be warmed up by the Republican leadership. They still have time to do the right thing and be responsible. They just seem to be moving further and further away from it"
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"At a time when our moral standing in the world has been weakened by a rubber stamp Justice Department that placed the Bush Administration above the law, we now need someone who is objective and independent. And, make no mistake, Eric Holder is independent"
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"And I'll tell you, honestly, folks that I talk to, the 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in America, that I am one of, understand that we're done with insurance companies dropping us or denying us coverage because of - because we have a preexisting condition"
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"And American voters understand that if we want to keep fighting to move in the new - in a new direction, we've got a long way to go. And we need to make sure we continue with Democrats being in the majority"
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"People used to say everyone knows someone who's had breast cancer. In the past few weeks, I've learned something else: Everyone has someone close to them who has had breast cancer"
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"Aren't we at the point where the closer we get to chaos, the more concern that there should be about coming to the table and compromising with Democrats? This is not leadership. This is almost like dictatorship"
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"And so to those who suggest that we are somehow 'harming' young women by encouraging them to take charge of their health we say this: We are not harming young women by educating them. We are arming them with information that they will carry with them throughout their lives"
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