On December 10, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) was elected in a special election to fill the seat once held by then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who was elected to the Senate in July. Her swearing-in on December 12 increases the number of women serving in the House of Representatives to 82 (19 Republicans and 53 Democrats), including the three delegates from the District of Columbia, Guam, and Virgin Islands. There are 20 women serving in the Senate; the total number of women serving in Congress is 102.
Rep. Clark was elected to the Massachusetts House in 2008. She subsequently was elected to the Senate in 2010, where she served as chair of the Judiciary Committee. Prior to her tenure as an elected official, she served in the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and in the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services. She also served on the Advisory Council for the Department of Early Education and Care and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy Advisory Board at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
A graduate of St. Lawrence University, Cornell University Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Rep. Clark is expected to focus on pay equity, women’s access to health care, job creation, and college affordability while in Congress.
