SHARICE DAVIDS

Sharice Davids was born in Germany to a single mother who served 20 years in the U.S. Army, followed by a career in civil service at the U.S. Post Office. Sharice is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. Her mother's father was an army veteran and a member of the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Band in Oneida, which is also my tribe.

She is the first person in her family to attend college. After high school, Sharice worked her way from community college in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Cornell Law School, balancing multiple jobs and responsibilities to support herself along the way.

As a child, Davids loved Bruce Lee and would tie a black belt around her waist and practice her kicks. After years of practice and study, she became an MMA fighter in 2006 and had a career as a professional mixed martial artist in the 2010s.

She took time off from fighting while going to law school at Cornell in Ithaca, New York. She emphasizes that she still kept up with her training because it had become such an important part of her life.

Davids received her law degree in 2009 and began working as an attorney. Sharice began working actively with Native American tribes to create programs and initiatives for growth. Her work inspired her to apply for the prestigious White House Fellows program, and she was selected to serve in the Department of Transportation under President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump.

Davids was elected in 2018 and became the first Democrat to represent a Kansas congressional district in a decade. Sharice is the first openly LGBTQIA+ Native American elected to the U.S. Congress and the only Democrat in Kansas's Republican-dominated congressional delegation.

Sharice feels her martial arts experience has been helpful in navigating the world of politics. She compared her ability to stay calm in a high-stress cage fight to keeping steady during tough situations in Congress that impact large numbers of people.