She worked as a legislative aide to then-State Senator Ron Klein from 1996 to 2005, and then served as the vice-president of Advocacy and Public Policy for the Florida Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

She faced Len Turesky, Sheldon Klasfield, and Harvey Arnold in the Democratic primary, and was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and by former United States Attorney General Janet Reno.

[8] In 2010, she proposed banning convicted felons from owning and operating pain clinics and placing limits on the quantity of prescription painkillers that physicians would be allowed to prescribe.

She won the Democratic primary unopposed, and advanced to the general election, where she faced Republican State Representative Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff and independent candidate Miranda Rosenberg.

[11] Ultimately, despite the fact that Barack Obama narrowly won the district in 2008,[10] Skidmore was defeated by a wide margin, winning 38% of the vote to Bogdanoff's 58% and Rosenberg's 5%.

She emphasized the practical reality that Democrats were at a "severe minority" in the Florida House, but nonetheless argued that she would help fight against Republican efforts to restrict access to abortion.