The Daily Signal - Former Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll Talks Breaking Glass Ceilings

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

Being the first is never easy. Jennifer Carroll was the first woman and the first black person to be elected to the position of Lieutenant Governor. Former Lieutenant Governor of Florida Jennifer Carroll shares what she learned through her many firsts in the military and in elected office. A role model for young people across America, Carroll's story is a perfect example of grit and grace. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, February 10th. I'm Robert Blewe. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we continue our Black History Month series. Today, we are featuring an interview with Jennifer Carroll, the former lieutenant governor of Florida. She shares with us what it was like to break two glass ceilings. We also share your letters to the editor and a bit of history for our good news story today. We will explain how the National Prayer Breakfast came to be and feature a few of the remarks delivered at this year's event. Before we get to today's show, Virginia and I want to tell you about one of the Daily Signal's other podcasts. It's called Problematic Women, and Virginia is one of its hosts.

That's right, Rob. On Problematic Women, we showcase strong, conservative women, current events, and the hypocrisy of liberal feminists. My co-host Lauren Evans and I crown a problematic woman of the week every week. It's a great show. Always upbeat, entertaining, and informative. I encourage you to check it out. It's available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite. podcast app. Now stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast

by former Lieutenant Governor of Florida, Jennifer Carroll. Jennifer, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. It's a great day. Well, throughout the month of February, we are excited to highlight the stories of black leaders like yourself. You were the first female black Republican elected to the Florida legislature and the first black woman to hold the position of Florida's lieutenant governor. Congratulations on both of those. Thank you. And a first woman to be elected as governor and statewide as well. Excellent. Outstanding. Well, we want to begin where it all started. So tell us how the story begins. Story began in my mother's womb now. All the way back, all the way back. I was born in Trinidad, West Indies. My parents migrated to the United States.

I came with them at the age of eight. They wanted, of course, to experience a land of opportunities in America, which in Trinidad, we looked at America as the landing pad of everything promising. And when my parents came here, they realized that it took a little bit of hard work. We had to go through the immigration process, and they worked multiple jobs, including those that I went and tagged along with them. My father always instilled in me that nothing is going to break you if you do hard work. And no one owes you anything you have to stand up and do for yourself. So those lessons stayed with me throughout. Join the military when I was 19 years old. Served 20 years in the military, started out as an enlisted jet mechanic, rose up through the ranks to retire as a Navy lieutenant commander, aviation maintenance officer.

A lot of firsts along the way because in the aviation community in the late 70s was just opened up for mechanics for myself for women. It was typically male and Congress had to and have the DOD open it up to most of the male dominated industries. in the military for women to serve in. And fortunately, I was one of those because my father, I always tinkered with mechanical stuff. He was a doer. He, no matter what, he was always tinkering with something and making it happen. That was more interesting to me than having a desk job or being a nurse. Those were channeled jobs that the military typically put females in. So as it turned out, that was the greatest thing for me because I was able to break down barriers and work in an industry that was typically not for women. Then going into politics,

ran for a congressional seat, lost that. But it made me stronger, and I won a statehouse seat that I served for seven and a half years and then serve as lieutenant governor in the state of Florida. That's fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. Thanks. And I would love to just hear a little bit more about your time in the Navy. What were some of those life principles or life lessons that you really took from those years that you spent serving in the Navy? Particularly for a woman. During those times, I was one of one. Either the only female, the only black, female wherever I served. So I was able to break down barriers and create pathways for others to come after me. So it was very rewarding to know that at least I had the inner strength.

Sometimes I didn't believe I did, but finding that out, I had the inner strength to make those barriers, remove those barriers for others to achieve and accomplish their goals as well. And to also create opportunities for people to see how they were treating other people or limiting other people's opportunities to get in to various fields of work. As a matter of fact, there was, when I was serving at one of my squadrons, I was an officer at this time. I was the only female officer in the maintenance department and the only black officer there. And the females were being treated as if they were hindrance, particularly if they got pregnant. And we were going on six month deployments and my senior male counterparts will say, well, the person got pregnant to get

out of going on deployment. So I had to correct that misnomer and showcase that the guys were injuring themselves playing basketball. You didn't say that they could injure themselves to get out of deployment. Then we also had issues with regards to individuals not feeling that they had a representative that they can look up to a mentor that looks like them, that they can go to and express their concerns. and I happen to be both on a male and female side, being of a black descent, was able to have

that welcoming for them to come and approach me with the issues that they were experiencing. And that, too, being a Mustang, like McCain was, go from enlisted ranks to officer rank, I was really approachable because the enlisted people that were our subordinates, for the typical officer that came through the academy or something like that, they felt that they could not understand what they were going through. So the enlisted guys really guys, guys meaning girls and guys, really gravitated to me because they felt that I came from where they came from. That's wonderful. Well, I want to say thank you for your service.

We're so appreciative of the time that you spent in the military. You retired in 1999 as a lieutenant commander. What made that decision in your mind to think about a political career and that first run, which you mentioned, was not successful, but you obviously went on to greater heights after that. Yes, indeed. Well, what made my decision to run was we had a awful representative that was supposed to represent our base. I was an admiral's aid at the time, and my admiral placed me in charge of being that liaison between our elected officials and our issues at the basis that he represented or was in charge of. Whenever I went to this particular member of Congress, she would blow us off. And we had base encroachment issues.

We had OSHA issues. We had so many various issues that needed to be addressed by a congressional member. So my in and around was the late Tilly Fowler. She was the next representative over from the district. She loved the military and agreed to carry out water. So I asked my representative for the district, would you mind if I went to Congresswoman Fowler for her to represent our needs and concerns? And her response was, sure, go ahead.

I thought that was shrugging your responsibility. Why are the taxpayers paying you money to represent them? And you don't even care about a large constituency, a major industrial partner here in your community that you're not even willing to either learn and represent us the way you should. So that made my decision to run. It was during the 2000 election, during George Bush's election. And hopefully people will read my book when you get there is my autobiography to talk about because of my entrance into that race enabled George Bush to win his election. Reason being, we had so much voter fraud in the district that, as it turned out, 27,000 votes that voted for Gore and voted for another candidate that had the last name of Brown, those 27,000 votes had to be thrown out with the recount and recount. Those 27,000 votes in my district had to be thrown out. Had no one challenged the congresswoman, her name was Brown, those votes would have stood for Al Gore.

Wow. So it was a really interesting dynamics at the time. So George Bush and even his brother, Jeb Bush, who had an appointment for it to be the executive director of Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, they credit me to his race. Because after the recount, it was only about 500 some odd votes. Had those 27,000 votes were just for gore and people just left that race alone, we would have had a different turn of events during that election cycle. Oh, absolutely. Now, I imagine that at that point, you could have just, you know, hung the half. up and said, okay, politics is not for me. But what motivated you to go on? Well, Jeb Bush.

Okay. Because Jeb Bush reached out. As a matter of fact, I had an appointment with President Bush to be on the Presidential Scholars Commission. And President Bush used to call me Jeb's girl. He said, could you go to Jeb's girl in Florida and see if you want to be on, he appointed me to two commissions early? So Jeb Bush sought me out and asked me would I be interested in running the state's Veterans Affairs. And that's what kept me in politics. And then, of course, the next election for the president again.

And then Jeff Bush's election. And then other candidates. When other candidates saw the struggles that I went through, because I didn't even have my party support when I ran in 2000, they felt because Bill Clinton was in office, the representative being a Democrat, it would have been access to the money people that want to get access to the administration

is easier to have her. They knew how to pay her off and so forth. So it was an uphill battle but it was worth it in my thought because we were able to expose that Republicans can run and make a difference where Democrats exist because at the end of the day we all want the same thing, safe and secure communities, safe and secure borders, education, that's quality for our children to exceed economic development in our communities. So across the board, regardless of you're a Republican and Democrat, these are the things that American families want. So with me getting out there and exposing that, as a matter of fact, my opponent said that I was a freak of nature because I was a black Republican. So I would make light of it.

I go, am I not a good looking freaking nature? And I would just break down barriers. And I was like, well, let me talk to you. And I had a lot of Democrats. I set up my campaign headquarters in the heart of her Black Democrat district. And you know, why are you here? I said, why shouldn't I be here? I want your vote.

So folks are come in on a quiet and they go, Tell me why you're Republican. I said, first of all, it's a free country. You can be what you want to be. In general election, you can vote for whoever you want. I'm not asking you why you're Democrat. If you want to talk about policies, let's have that discussion. That's great.

I love how your story is so marked by that persistence of breaking down barriers. And as we mentioned, you were the first woman and the first black person to be elected to the position of lieutenant governor. And before becoming lieutenant governor, you were also the first Republican. black female to serve on the Florida legislature. Now that had to just be so exciting to be the first in both of those positions. What did that mean to you? You know, at the onset, it meant nothing because I didn't even know. When I was running for the state house seat, I didn't know that a black female Republican was never elected to the Florida legislature. It was until after the election, someone said, did you know you made a milestone? I go, what milestone is that? I just won my seat. That's about it.

But it came with an obligation to represent in such a way that it will leave a good mark on individuals, individuals that were proud of that moment and saw it as something that they can share with their daughters and their sons as well. I had so many people come up to me and say, my daughter is so impressed with you. What people should say is my daughter is so impressed with me themselves, their parents. shouldn't look to really external. That should be just an extension of what they've already learned in their households, the values that they've already been taught in their household. My kids have never gone up to someone and say,

I am so in odd, I want to be like you, because they already know who they are. They have instill values, they have instill character and abilities that they are short of. And that's what I wanted to present to people that were so coming up in awe at me. I'm just a person, just like you. you have those instilled abilities to also be great if you allow yourself to be that. You don't need to latch on to somebody else.

So I knew that there was an obligation for me to set myself as a role model, regardless if I wanted to or not, for others to emulate and for them to see that they have the powers and ability within themselves to be as great as they wanted to be. That's wonderful. Now, throughout your time in public service, is there an accomplishment or a couple of accomplishments that stand out in your mind that you're particularly proud of? Well, a couple. I shouldn't say a couple. There are many. But when I boil it down to a nutshell, the greatest accomplishment, both in all the areas that I serve, whether it's the executive director of Florida Department Affairs, my state legislative position on lieutenant governor was breaking down the barriers of government for the average Joe and Jane to access information and get resolved for their issues. Because of my positions, I could just make a phone call and make things happen. And it really helps. highlighted itself when I was lieutenant governor that so many people will call our citizen services

and they'll get blown off and not get a response back. But once they call my office, even my legislative office, I had a standing order that no one, regardless of where their district was, whatever their party affiliation was, they would not walk away without knowing that our office helped them. So they may not receive the answer that they wanted, but at least they had to resolve for their issues. I cannot tell you how many letters and emails my office received to thank me and my staff for helping them throughout the process to navigate government. And our government should be more accessible and the individuals to the public. Because it's supposed to be a state, you're supposed to be as an elected official,

a statesman, not a politician. And it's the opposite. You work for the people. You are responsive to the people. And nowadays, we're not seeing that level of government anymore. That's a great attitude. I appreciate that. I know our listeners will as well. And who are those voices in your life that really challenged you to go where no one had gone before and to fight for the people in your state? Who are those role models for you? My first role model is God. He is everything. My guidance comes from him. My strength comes from him. My knowledge comes from him. So I have to give honor first and foremost to him. Then I have an absolutely wonderful support mechanism in my family. my husband, my three kids, and then the extension of that. And then people don't even realize, and sometimes we take it for granted, the external friendship that you have out there that are praying for you and supporting

you on a regular basis. Oftentimes we get so busy. We don't call people. We don't connect with people. When you have a campaign, that's when everybody comes on board and they go about their merry way. And the older I get, the more I realize and recognize, we have to. reach out to those people. And even if you want to say thank you or how are you doing,

it's very important to keep that close because those people don't have to support you. They don't have to pray for you. They don't have to do anything for you, but they did it out of love and the will of their heart. That's wonderful. Thanks for sharing that. You mentioned earlier your book when you get there. Thank you for writing it and bringing it up because I wanted to ask a question for our audience to know a little bit more about why you chose to write it and what they can find in it. Yeah, interesting. You break that up. Earlier today, I had a lecture that I did at the Leadership Institute and talking about dealing with the media. The media could be a friend or foe, and it all depends on who you are.

When inaccurate information is printed about you or the attack dogs come, you don't have enough paper and ink to correct the story. And in the light of social media today, things get viral. People started embellishing on things that are not true. How do you combat that attack and the untruth? When I came out of office, this was a way for me to tell my story and to capture the narrative of things that actually occurred. So I chose to do an autobiography. So I share with the reader information about myself from where I came and my struggles along the way. And I crafted it such that it's an inspirational message.

So people would see life is not going to be a bed of roses at all times, but how you pick yourself up from those falls and adversities is what's going to make you and prepare you for the next step and whatever God is having store to bless you with. But if you dwell on those negatives and you don't have some inner strength to push and persevere forward, you're not going to make yourself better. Well, and Jennifer, this might be the same bit of advice that you've just kind of mentioned in talking about your book. But what would you say to young people who have a lot of zeal? They want to change the world. They're maybe interested in getting involved in politics. And they're not sure where to begin. What would you say to them?

The first thing I would say, to begin, start doing things at the local level. Get involved with nonprofit organizations. And I did that as well. It's a number of nonprofit organizations. At least you get an understanding as to what the concerns are of the community, whether it's education, whether it's the infrastructure, whether it's the environment. and find out because when you're elected, it should not be what your agenda is. It's the agenda that you're bringing forward from the people, their voice, their message.

If their message or their voice is the wrong way to go, it's up to you to inform them about how it should be because of knowledge they may not have. All of my legislative, all my bills that I've sent through the legislature came from my town hall, came from my connection with the voters. When I was elected in the Florida legislature, I ran one race, and that was the first race that I wasn't supposed to win because the scuttle butt,

the scuttle butt in the military is the rumor out there. She's never run a race. She's running against a lady that has won before, and she's a black person in a redneck area, and the rednecks are not going to vote for a black person. Well, I won with over 82% of the votes. That was my first race. Never had a race beyond that.

Why? because I stay connected with my constituents, newsletters, direct emails, phone calls, town hall meetings. And didn't go to town hall meetings to hear myself pontificate, I went there to get information from them. What are your concerns? What are you seeing? And my newsletters and emails were guiding them through the legislative process

as we're in session. This is what's going on. This is why I'm not voting for this bill. This was an amendment added to the bill. This is what the amendment says and does. communicate back with me if I'm not on a right track with you, et cetera. And I stayed engaged with my constituency throughout. And I think that's very key and important for anyone that wants to run to understand the community in which they want to serve. Because what we're seeing with a lot of

candidates, they're stepping out there. And it's selfishly, I want to be an elected official. I want to have the name and title. It's not about you. It should be about the constituent. If you truly want to be and have a servant heart and be a statesperson or statesman or general terms, then you should be looking at what's the issue at heart for the people in the district that you want to represent. That's great for you to hear. I often reminds me of our president, Kay K. James here at the Heritage Foundation, who talks about the importance of just showing up and listening.

And I want to close on this question because it seems that particularly in our position here at Heritage or at the Daily Signal, as we look to reach a bigger audience and some new audiences, be it women or minorities or young people, who traditionally aren't identified as closely with conservatism as others. What is your advice for doing a better job as conservatives to make sure that they understand that our policies really do lead to a better life? Well, what we have to do is have a better messenger and a better message. That's the bottom line across the board. For example, when I went into the Florida legislature, there was a bill to pass for a licensed,

that has the image and likeness of Dr. King. And this license plate, the proceeds from it will go to, in a state of Florida, helping out with infant mortality, birth defects, as well as sick of cell education and research. And all those impact primarily the black community. This legislation was tried by a Democrat legislator, both in the House and Senate, for five years prior to me coming there. The member Democrat in the Senate recognized that he's not getting anything passed because we have both Republican House and Senate. He came to me with the idea.

I saw what the bill and the legislation would do and I supported it. Ran through, pass was my first bill, you know, getting signed by Jet Bush. That bill impacted so many black families across the state of Florida and even other states emulated the legislation that we did in the state of Florida. Now, had I just led that lie and not expose it, it would have been a story untold. There are many things that we're doing both on the state, local, and national level, like President Trump is doing and President Bush has done with increasing minority home ownership or increasing minority job opportunities or decreasing the unemployment roles and getting people off of the welfare roles for the sustainable.

We have to tell our story. But whose audience has listening to our story? who's the messenger that's sharing our story and how many times are we repeating that story? If you only repeat it once, it's not heard at all. You repeat it three times, maybe. You got 10, 20, 30 times, but you have to tell a story how it can relate to individuals that's supposed to be receiving it. If you just say unemployment in the black community has gone down X amount,

okay, what does that mean to me? Is it meaning extra money for you to buy those diapers or to save for your kids' education? bringing down to that level so that people can really resonate to the message that you're trying to convey. That's great advice. Great tip. Storytelling is so important. And that's one of the things we're certainly committed to here at The Daily Signal. And where can our listeners find your book?

On my website at Jennifer Carroll.com. That's J-E-N-N-I-F-E-R-C-R-O-L.com. Okay, great. We'll be sure to link that in the show notes. Thank you. Jennifer Carroll. Thanks so much for sharing your story and talking with The Daily Signal. It was my pleasure.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show and in the Daily Signals Morning Bell email newsletter. Virginia, who do you have first? In response to Jarrett Stetman's article entitled Trump's State of the Union Address affirms Americanism as nation's guiding ethos, George Bishop writes, I don't want to blame political sides because that gets us nowhere. But it seems that America has been driven apart. The people wanting to make her the great country she is and those who want to do.

divide the country for whatever reason. I can't fully understand. Everybody wants to fight about whose ideas are best for America while trashing the other half. Our country was built on our diversity and grew with that strength. A house divided against itself will indeed fail. Is that how this experiment is going to end? I sure hope not. I pray not. May God help America heal. And in response to President Trump's address, Rick Radford writes, Best State of the Union speech I have ever heard. A proper speech and then it was a statement of the state of the union. Where we are and where we are going as a country.

President Trump laid out the past and a roadmap to the future. Politics were kept to a minimum. And his complete and total refusal to dignify impeachment by not mentioning it was a masterstroke. I was worried he would bring it up, but he left it out of the discussion. Genius. Well, Rick, we enjoyed it too. Thanks so much for sending your letter. could be featured on next week's show.

So send an email to letters at daily signal.com or leave a voicemail message at 202-608-6205. What the heck is trickle-down economics? Does the military really need a space force? What is the meaning of American exceptionalism? I'm Michelle Cordero. I'm Tim Desher. And every week on the Heritage Explains podcast,

we break down a hot-button policy issue in the news at a 101 level. through an entertaining mix of personal stories, media clips, music, and interviews, we help you actually understand the issues. So do this. Subscribe to Heritage Explains on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast today. The National Prayer Breakfast received a lot of attention this year, given the fact that it was held the day after the Senate voted to acquit President Trump of his impeachment charges. Virginia is here to tell us more about it. Thanks so much, Rob. We live in a time of political division, especially here in Washington, D.C. But despite those tensions, one speaker brought a message of hope to the National Prayer Breakfast.

Arthur Brooks is the former president of the American Enterprise Institute and currently a Harvard Kennedy School professor. The Daily Signal interviewed him on this podcast just last year. During his remarks, Brooks challenged the nation to remember the words of Jesus Christ and to love our enemies. Take a listen. And to start us today on this path of new thinking about the crisis of contempt and polarization, I want to turn to the words of the ultimate new thinker, history's greatest social entrepreneur, and as a Catholic, my personal Lord and Savior, Jesus. Here's what he said is recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 5, verse 44.

You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of the Father in heaven. My friends, that is the theme of this breakfast today. Love your enemies. That's thinking differently. It changed the world, starting 2,000 years ago, and it's as subversive and counterintuitive today as it was then.

Problem is, the devil's in the details. How do you do it? How do you do it in a country, in a world that's being roguerate? old by political hatred and differences that we just can't seem to bridge. Well, to begin, we need to make it personal. We need to make the problem personal. I remember it when it became personal to me. I make my living speaking. I do about 175 speeches a year. It's a privilege. And I speak to all different audiences, conservatives, liberals, believers, atheists, everybody. What a privilege. In 2014, One morning I was giving a speech to a large group of conservative political activists, 600 people, very fired up.

And I got there a little bit early and I looked at the program, all the other speakers, and I realized I was the only one on the program not running for president. I thought to myself, that's a mistake. But there aren't any mistakes, my friends. There's only opportunities. So I asked myself, what can I say that politicians can't? The answer is, anything I want. So I gave my speech, and in the middle I stopped, and I said, my friends, you've been giving a lot of applause to the speakers here today, and you agree with them, and I agree with them too. But I want you to remember the people who aren't here.

They're not here. They wouldn't be comfortable. They wouldn't be comfortable because they don't agree with these ideas. Who are they? Political liberals. I want you to remember. they're not stupid and they're not evil. They're just Americans who disagree with us on public policy.

And if you want to persuade them, which you should, you can only do it one way, and that's with love. It was not an applause line. Thank you. Finally. The applause have been waiting so long for it. But a lady said to me, she said, You're wrong.

They are stupid and evil. And at that moment, my mind went to Seattle. Why? Because it's my hometown. And some of you know, Seattle is the most politically progressive place in the United States. My father was a college professor. My mother was an artist in Seattle, Washington. What do you think their politics were?

I'm politically conservative. I'm the outlier in my own family. Let me tell you something about my parents. They were not stupid and they were not evil. They were followers of Jesus and brought me up as a Christian. They gave me good values and they taught me to think for myself, which I did at great inconvenience to them. That day, political polarization became personal to me

and I wanted to be personal to you on this day. So let me ask you this. How many of you love somebody with whom you disagree politically? I'm going to round that off to 100%. the rest of you are on your phones. Are you comfortable hearing someone on your side insult that person that you love? Make it personal, my friends. This reminds me of a lesson my father taught me about moral courage.

We're always taught that we need to stand up to the people with whom we disagree. And that is a good thing to do. Look, we need a competition of ideas. This is America. But the great thing about America is there's no knock in the night and no jack-booted thug just because people disagree with us. God bless this country. We've achieved this.

So moral courage is not standing up to the people with whom you disagree. Moral courage is standing up to the people with whom you agree on behalf of those with whom you disagree. This year marks the 68th annual prayer breakfast, a tradition that started in 1953. President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the first prayer breakfast, but the idea came from a man named Abraham Variety. a Norwegian immigrant and Methodist minister. Variety started a small group for congressional members to meet before work, to eat, and to pray together. The small meeting evolved into an idea to hold a larger prayer gathering. Today, the National Prayer Breakfast hosts over 3,500 people annually from all 50 states and over 100 countries. The theme of the very first prayer breakfast was government

under God. Eisenhower was originally wary of attending the breakfast, but Reverend Billy Graham convinced him to join. Eisenhower was not remembered as being an especially religious president. However, it was under his leadership that the phrase in God we trust was added to our currency and under God to the Pledge of Allegiance. Today, the breakfast is hosted by members of Congress and past speakers have included Mother Teresa, Tony Blair, Ben Carson, and Max Lucato, just to to name a few. It certainly is great to see this tradition of the National Prayer Breakfast continue so many years later. Virginia, thanks so much for sharing that history lesson with us and for playing a clip from Arthur Brooks. It's always great to hear from Arthur. It really is.

We miss him in D.C., but we're glad that he's doing great things at Harvard. We sure do. We're going to leave it there for today. The Daily Signal podcast comes to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. You can find it on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All our shows can be found at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners.

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