ABOUT

A Florida Delegate to both the 2020 + 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vanessa Lester has been a registered Democrat since 1981 and has been extraordinarily active within the party infrastructure for the last eight (8) years.  

 

In 2017, Vanessa joined the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee (HCDEC) as a Precinct Committeewoman for Precinct 855 in Brandon (now an elected Precinct Committeeperson for Precinct 856). She served as the HCDEC Vice Chair of Operations from 2018 to 2020.  During her time with the HCDEC, Vanessa has assisted in the creation of the HCDEC Strategy Documents each election cycle. 

 

Vanessa was elected as the Hillsborough County State Committeewoman (SCW) in 2020. During her four (4) year term as SCW - besides the required service on the State Central and State Executive Committees and serving as Congressional District 15 Chair overseeing delegate elections to the 2024 Democratic National Convention - Vanessa served on the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) GOTV Sub-Committee, the Judicial Council, the Resolutions Committee, and the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, in each case, appointed by FDP Chair Nikki Fried (and once by former FDP Chair Manny Diaz). To better understand the big picture of the Democratic Party organization outside of Florida, Vanessa has also attended Democratic National Committee (DNC) meetings in person. 

 

At the county level, since 2018, Vanessa has actively participated on several HCDEC committees including Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Public Relations (specifically, the Social Media team), Campaign/Candidate, Platform, and Precinct & Field. Vanessa has participated in the planning and execution of many of the Spring Fling and Kennedy King Gala fundraisers.  As part of her personal outreach and relationship building, Vanessa has joined various Clubs and Caucuses and attends meetings regularly. 

 

In addition to her roles with the HCDEC and FDP, Vanessa served as Vice President of the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Tampa Bay and is currently a board member. She also served as the President and Vice President of the State Progressive Caucus where she still attends and participates in steering committee meetings as ex officio; contributes to leadership discussions and decisions; reviews documentation and provides feedback; helps coordinate and plan fundraisers; assists in the Caucus’ candidate endorsement process; and assists in any manner necessary to help ensure the success of the Caucus. 

 

For several cycles now, Vanessa has supported the Voter Protection program in Hillsborough County (just this year, Vanessa helped manage a volunteer presence at more than a dozen local early voting sites). Working within a team, she helped coordinate, organize, manage and participate in both the Poll Greeter and Voter Protection efforts throughout the County and is assisting in compiling Standard Operating Procedures (with best practices) for these efforts in the future. Along with canvassing and being credentialed as a Poll Watcher, Vanessa sign waved and sought out opportunities to fill in gaps that were identified. Vanessa believes in the adage that “team work makes the dream work” and has worked tirelessly on forging working relationships throughout the county and the state.

 

Vanessa has been employed as an Information Systems Project Manager for the past 13 years at the same highly-regarded private company. She has over 26 years of experience in the IT industry as a Project Manager, and she is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) through Project Management Institute (PMI), a globally recognized organization that certifies trained and qualified project managers. These decades of experience, with an emphasis on forethought, logistics, creating and then implementing processes, shapes her approach to activism and consistently enhance her effectiveness as she engages in the volatile, fast-paced and emotionally charged world of politics, campaigns and political organizing.

 

A Veteran of the US Army, Vanessa served 8 years on active duty and in the Army Reserves. During her time in the reserves and on activity duty, she worked as a watercraft operator and unit clerk. She received her Associate of Science degree in Education from Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, VA, and her Bachelor of Science in Human Services Counseling from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

 

Vanessa doesn’t just “talk the talk,” she “walks the walk” - and never expects to do less than what any and all other volunteers are asked to do. She is devoted to making the Democratic Party true to its core: a party for the people. She is committed to solving the issues that Floridians face, especially those most marginalized.  She shows up in the communities she serves on a consistent basis, and actively volunteers during elections. Vanessa is an extrovert and an optimist whose personal motto is “all gas, no brakes.” Despite the wide-ranging work she has completed within the HCDEC, and after all these years, Vanessa still finds canvassing and engaging voters directly her greatest reward and joy derived from her volunteer work with the party. 

 

Vanessa has the drive, lived experience and professional skills to push the Hillsborough Democratic Party forward while leveraging past successes. She understands that voters want to see party leaders as serving alongside them, building up our communities, and at their doors discussing issues. Her task as Chair will be to identify challenges to the HCDEC’s work while simultaneously seeking and implementing solutions with the help of the Steering Committee, elected Democratic officials, and the diverse skill set of our amazing Precinct Committeepersons.

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