Daniels was first nominated to the House in 2016 (incumbent
Mia L. Jones could not run due to
term limits), winning the Democratic nomination with 6781 votes (35.99% of the vote) in the
primary election, defeating attorney Leslie Jean-Bart (31.32%) and three other candidates. In the general election she easily defeated Republican nominee Christian Whitfield, taking just over two-thirds of the vote. In March 2017, it was reported that Daniels was under investigation by the
Florida Elections Commission after it found probable cause that she used campaign funds for personal expenses and later falsely reported information on finance reports. In early 2018, Daniels introduced HB 839, a bill that requires public schools to display the motto "
In God We Trust" in a conspicuous place. On Tuesday, January 23, 2018, the bill received unanimous approval from the House PreK-12 Innovation Subcommittee. Later, in a vote on February 21, 2018, the bill passed 97 to 10 in the House. The measure was eventually adopted as law in March 2019 as part of an education bill. On August 28, 2018, Daniels defeated educator Paula Wright in the Democratic primary for her seat. She did not have a Republican opponent, and conspicuously drew campaign support from Republican officeholders and donors. In early 2019, Daniels sponsored legislation to require schools to teach courses on the
Bible. The Florida House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee approved the measure. Daniels championed a $1 million contract for
SCLC World Wide, run by Gary Johnson. In the summer of 2019,
Florida Department of Juvenile Justice sued SCLC World Wide for not delivering on its commitments. The following day, Daniels was sued by a former staffer, Karen Riggien, who claimed to have been wrongfully fired in February 2018 in connection with interactions with Gary Johnson, a man Riggien described as Daniels' boyfriend. On July 23, 2019, the
Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote to Representative Daniels requesting that she stop blocking users on
Facebook. On August 18, 2020, Daniels lost renomination in the Democratic primary election to
Angie Nixon. ==False disclosures and ethical investigations==