By: Kristen Hernandez
POMPANO BEACH, Fl — Rosalind Osgood proved she’s a rising star of the Democratic Party and a woman to watch. In an election in March, Osgood proved doubters wrong when she defeated Joseph Carter, former school teacher, in the Florida State Senate race for District 33, which includes sections of Pompano Beach. The coveted empty seat was vacated when then Senator Perry Thurston (D), resigned to run for Congress last year.
Osgood is currently pushing for representative redistricting. She wrote in a recent Viewpoint article in the Sun Sentinel, “Legislative leaders appear to be struggling to do what’s morally right and fulfill their constitutional obligation to the people of Florida. The governor’s veto and submission of his own congressional map was another attempt to suppress the Black vote. He’s attempting to personally choose the districts that will represent the people in Congress for the next decade.”
Osgood gained a foothold in Broward when she made headlines at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, Osgood was chair of the Broward County School Board. She defied an order from Governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to withhold necessary funding from any school district that imposed mask mandates, and he did just that. “The data proved we protected kids and teachers from the spread of the virus,” Osgood said, when she and Carter appeared on This Week. “Legislation targeted the administration and attacked the members who chose to protect and prioritize people in our district.”
As Senator, Osgood also wants our children to have the freedom to speak out about things such as racial injustice, especially in educational settings. “Many policy makers lack the capacity to draw a distinction between invidious uses of race and benign uses of race,” she said. “This country belongs to all of us and I am pro-democracy.”
The obvious racial and economic disparities amongst our cities is apparent and something Rosalind, a Fort Lauderdale native, knows about first-hand. It was the support and funding of local Broward County programs such as BARC — Broward Addiction Recover Center, which helped change the course of Osgood’s life. Rosalind once had to take responsibility for her collective bad choices, chose the path of recovery, and went back to school with the assistance of several Broward County funded programs. Osgood propelled forward and completed her Masters, and then Doctorate, both in Public Administration.
Her plan is to improve our education system, improve economic disparities within our cities by increasing access to funding for small businesses and non-profits, and increase funding for county programs such as the ones which helped turn her life around. “That’s why I’m so invested in community,” Osgood said. “The services that were available helped me get my life back.”
Osgood’s views, her faith in God, combined with her aggressive determination, belief in facing the consequences, and spirit are the values of a true Democratic leader in the making. “I’m grateful for the new leadership opportunity that the voters of Broward County have given me,” Osgood told the South Florida Times after winning the Senate seat. “I still dream of a multicultural, multiracial, interfaith nation that gives every person a life experience of freedom, justice, and peace. We can no longer fail to see the connections between America’s racial history and present-day inequalities.”