The Lede altogether 
First of all, let my say I apologize for what was described as an "uncivil" debate between the user "Tippx" and myself.  I'm willing to work this thing out like mature adults if he is.  But the attitude of "my way or the high way" comes and it's going to go nowhere and probably end the same. 

First of all, I have to say I agree 100% talk with your assessment of "Currently the lede is too brief to do this job properly, which perhaps gives the impression that mentioning the detainee incident so prominently is giving undue focus to one particular event".  That's exactly the impression I got.  I felt Tippx was trying to put too much emphasizes on something controversial partly b/c at the same time, he insisted a couple facts in the Early Life section were "overwhelmingly positive" as he stated. 
But forget the Early Life section for now. 

Lets talk about improving the Lede section because I agree it does need improving. It's just a bunch of short complete sentences. Which is why if you look at my edited version, I combined some to make it flow while also adding in diminutive additional facts but at the same time. I didn't make one fact override the other.  I listed basically the Key things about West's career and that was it. Nothing was more emphasized. And I actually, as you can see, came to agree that West's exit from the military did need to be mentioned but to a certain degree. While that is a Key thing in West's career, it's one of many. I listed he won this past election but also lost his first election; Listed after he retired, the jobs he took up before his first bid for election; And I did it all in chronological order.
Felt it was balanced, cited, and edited well. But ofcourse, the user reverted it and his only explanation was a different one "sounded better".

But off of that, and onto how we can get it right...

First of all, I'll be clear... It's legitimate and cogent, and I'm going to insert back, the fact that former Congressman Josiah Wall was the last black Florida Congressman and also the last EXACT YEAR is substituted for "In November 2010 he was elected as the first African-American Republican Congressman from Florida since the 1870s.". It's not that much more lengthy and listing the exact year and the last person, who indeed was the last black Rep from Florida, I feel does no harm and doesn't for a sec take a viewer completely out of the main subject. And also, justified to just say in the "2010 Mid-term election" rather than "November 2010". Everyone knows our elections are in November but when a reader 15 years from now may be reading, the fact it says mid-terms will immediately thwart the curiosity of whether this subject's election triumph was in a Presidential Election year or Mid-Term year.

And it also it's rational to just put he's "Republican Representative-elect....." rather than " "He's Representative-elect from Florida....." and the "He is a member of the Republican Party". Those can EASILY and rationally be combined. No requisite for deliberation there.

As far as what   and (talk contribs) say about the interrogation incident. Qwurxian, your statement of "you cannot factually state that it was due to pressure, that it was to preserve his benefits, because he was afraid of being convicted, or any other reason....."...... I guess one would feel we need an exact statement from West's mouth as to EXACTLY WHY then OK, I guess find a statement by him saying WHY, but one would assume it was at least two if not all three of what you mentioned by simple coherence. We'll leave that open.

And we'll leave else to be be dealt with. 

And we can figure out how to combine and get the right Lede we're looking for as well as anything else.