Webster, Daniel, 1949-

Daniel Alan Webster (born April 27, 1949) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 11th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he first entered Congress in 2011. He represented Florida's 10th congressional district from 2011 to 2017 (numbered as the 8th district during his first term). Before his congressional service, he served 28 years in the Florida legislature.

After receiving his engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Webster worked in the family air conditioning and heating business that he now owns and operates. He has been a resident of Florida since the age of seven and resides in Winter Garden. First elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1980 and the Florida Senate in 1998, Webster is the longest-serving legislator in Florida history. He became Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (1996–1998) and Florida Senate Majority Leader (2006–2008); he left the legislature after reaching the legal term limits. He ran unopposed in all of his elections for the state legislature except for the first three: 1980, 1982 and 1984.

Representatives in 2010. He has since run three times for Speaker of the House: in January 2015, he received 12 votes; in October 2015, he received 9 votes; in 2017, he received one vote. In the 115th United States Congress, Webster sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Natural Resources Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Webster was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Mildred Rada (Schoolcraft), a nurse, and Dennis Webster. He was raised in Orlando, Florida, where his family moved when Webster was seven, upon a doctor's recommendation that a change of climate might cure Webster's sinus problems.[5] He is a distant relative of the antebellum politician and orator Daniel Webster.

He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was student government chaplain from 1970 to 1971 and a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He graduated in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.[6] Upon graduation, Webster's Vietnam War student deferment expired and he became eligible for conscription into the U.S. military, but was not drafted, because he failed the physical exam due to lifelong foot problems that prevent him from standing for long periods.

Since college, Webster has worked in the family air conditioning and heating business; he presently owns and operates it. Webster lives in Winter Garden, Florida.