The job's often compared to being Florida's head cheerleader, but while almost every Lieutenant Governor can smile and shake a few hands, Jennifer Carroll brings something different.

"I want to say go Florida!"

She's not just an African-American woman - rare enough in the world of high-level state politics - but a republican.

In fact, to this day, Carroll's the only African-American female republican ever elected to the Florida legislature.

"My opponent called me 'some freak of nature' because, you know, I'm black and I'm republican and how dare I, and I said the absolute opposite: how dare they want to pigeonhole me into what they think a black person in America ought to be or think," Lt. Gov. Carroll said.

It's a view that has its roots in Carroll's un-American upbringing.

She was born in Trinidad, the daughter of Caribbean parents with a dream of becoming U.S. citizens, ad by the time she was 8, America was home.

For Carroll, it was a land where opportunity could pay off but, especially for a black female immigrant, only through hard work...the kind that helped make her a naval aviation officer in her mid-20s.

"So, I did a five-year incentive package."

Twenty-five years later, it may have been that tenacity that caught the attention of a multi-millionaire political newcomer named Rick Scott.

"Jennifer Carroll has accepted my invitation to run as my running mate."

Rick Scott's been called one of the most conservative governors in Florida history, which is why it may be curious he'd pick Jennifer Carroll to be his right-hand woman.

After all, when she served in the House, her district was overwhelmingly democratic.

"I wasn't the 'entrenched establishment', so to speak. Maybe that's why!"

Pleasing her constituents meant Carroll, from time to time, had to buck republican leaders in the house. an appealing quality for Scott, who pledged to turn Tallahassee on its head.

"Our philosophies were aligned, our backgrounds were aligned, our morale and character and integrity and principles were in line - we just hit it off!"

Now, a year into the job, and Carroll's working the phones and traveling the globe, empowered by her past to empower Florida's future.

The lieutenant governor isn't the only famous member of the Carroll family. Her son, Nolan Junior, is a defensive back for the Miami Dolphins.