Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana, 1952-

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (born Ileana Carmen Ros y Adato, July 15, 1952) is a Cuban-American educator, politician and lobbyist from Miami, Florida, who represented Florida's 27th congressional district from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She was Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2011–2013. Ros-Lehtinen gave the first Republican response to the State of the Union address in Spanish in 2011, and gave the third in 2014.

Born in Havana, Cuba, her family immigrated to the United States when Ileana was seven years old. After graduating from Southwest Miami High School in 1970, Ros-Lehtinen earned an associate degree from Miami-Dade Community College in 1972, a bachelor’s in higher education from Florida International University (FIU) in 1975, and a master’s in educational leadership from FIU in 1985. In 2004 she earned a PhD in higher education from the University of Miami. She also founded a private elementary school with her parents, working as a teacher and as its chief administrator.

In 1982 Ros-Lehtinen won a seat in the Florida house of representatives, making headlines as the first Hispanic woman to serve in the state legislature. Four years later, she won a seat in the Florida senate. In the state legislature, she met and married her husband, Dexter Lehtinen, who also served in the Florida house and senate, and who went on to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. When veteran Congressman Claude Pepper died in May 1989, Ros-Lehtinen entered the race to fill his South Florida seat in the House. Using the strong community ties she developed in the state legislature, Ros-Lehtinen ran an effective grassroots campaign, easily winning the Republican nomination and narrowly winning election, putting the seat in Republican hands for the first time since its creation in 1962, with Ros-Lehtinen becoming the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban American elected to Congress. She was the first Republican woman elected to the House from Florida.

Ros-Lehtinen earned support among her Cuban-American constituents for her tenacious approach to the Castro government and her larger commitment to human rights. As a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Ros-Lehtinen worked across the aisle on immigration measures. She also defended the nation’s military and sought to bolster veteran’s health care and educational opportunities for veterans. As her district also had a sizable LGBTQ population, Ros-Lehtinen advocated for equal rights and marriage equality. She became the first Republican member of the U.S. Congress to co-sponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. In July 2012, Ros-Lehtinen became the first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage.

In 2017, Ros-Lehtinen, by then the dean of the Florida delegation, announced her retirement from Congress. After leaving the House at the end of the 115th Congress in January 2019, Ros-Lehtinen returned to Florida where she lives with her husband. In retirement, she writes a column for the Miami Herald and works as a senior advisor for a major lobbying firm.