The month of November is Native American Heritage Month, and to celebrate, we’re
highlighting the trailblazing Congresswoman Sharice Davids!
Congresswoman Sharice Davids is the Representative for Kansas’s 3rd congressional
district, elected in 2019. Representative Davids is one of the first two Native American women to be elected to Congress and the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to the U.S. Congress. Representative Davids started her career as an attorney, earning her Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School. As an attorney, she directed community and economic development for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Before this, she had traveled across the U.S., living on various Native American reservations, assisting them with their economic and community development plans. Representative Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, with ties to the Mohican Nation Stockbridge–Munsee Band through her grandfather.
In 2018 she began her political career, running as the Democratic nominee in the race for
Kansas’s 3rd congressional district for the House of Representatives. She won the election
against the incumbent, Kevin Yoder, and was sworn in on January 3rd, 2019. Representative
Davids has maintained her position in the House of Representatives ever since. She was named as a vice-chair for the 2020 Democratic National Conference, serves as the co-chair for the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, and was named as a vice-chair for the Congressional Native American Caucus. Beyond her career as an attorney and an elected representative, Representative Davids also had a career as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the early 2010s.
If you’re interested in a career in politics or law, you can make an appointment with one of our Career Coaches to explore the different paths you can take1
Photo Attribution: <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sharice_Davids.jpg”Kristie> Boyd; U.S. House Office of Photography</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
