37 Facts About Jackie Speier

1.

Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier is an American lawyer and politician who served as the US representative for, serving in Congress from 2008 to 2023.

2.

In 1978, while working as his aide, Jackie Speier survived five gunshot wounds when Ryan was assassinated during the Jonestown massacre.

3.

Jackie Speier was a member of the California State Senate, representing parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

4.

Jackie Speier was born in 1950 in San Francisco, and grew up in an apolitical family, the daughter of Nancy and Manfred "Fred" Jackie Speier.

5.

Jackie Speier's mother, who was born in Fresno of Armenian descent, lost most of her extended family in the Armenian genocide, while her father was an immigrant from Germany.

6.

Jackie Speier was the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother.

7.

Jackie Speier is a graduate of Mercy High School in Burlingame.

8.

Jackie Speier earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Davis, and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1976.

9.

At the time, Jackie Speier was two months pregnant with their second child, a daughter she named Stephanie.

10.

Jackie Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan.

11.

Jackie Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown, Guyana, with Jones in 1977 and 1978.

12.

Jackie Speier lost the special election to the Republican nominee, San Mateo County Supervisor Bill Royer, who served the remaining 21 months of the term before losing to Tom Lantos.

13.

Jackie Speier won her first election in 1980, when she ran for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and defeated a 20-year incumbent.

14.

Jackie Speier was reelected in 1984, and was later selected as chairwoman.

15.

In 1986, midway through her second term on the Board of Supervisors, Jackie Speier ran for the California State Assembly from a district in northern San Mateo County.

16.

Jackie Speier was reelected four more times, the last time as the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

17.

State law prevented Jackie Speier from running for reelection to the Assembly in 1996, but in 1998 she was elected to the California State Senate.

18.

Jackie Speier was termed out of the California State Senate in 2006.

19.

In 2006, Jackie Speier ran in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor of California against insurance commissioner John Garamendi and state senator Liz Figueroa.

20.

On January 13,2008, Jackie Speier announced she was running in the Democratic primary for the 12th District, Ryan's old district.

21.

Jackie Speier had spent much of 2007 building support to challenge Lantos in the Democratic primary.

22.

Jackie Speier won a special primary election on April 8,2008, to fill the remainder of his term, which ended in January 2009.

23.

Jackie Speier indicated she would be willing to serve in a role in the Biden administration, but was not chosen for a position.

24.

On November 16,2021, Jackie Speier announced she would not run for reelection to Congress in 2022.

25.

Jackie Speier introduced the I am Vanessa Guillen Act, named for Army Spc Vanessa Guillen, on September 16,2020, and reintroduced it on May 13,2021.

26.

Jackie Speier introduced the Vanessa Guillen Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevent Act on Jun 23,2021, which would move the decision to prosecute serious crimes in the military from the chain of command.

27.

Jackie Speier is a critic of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter Program.

28.

Jackie Speier co-sponsored the Protecting NATO Skies Act of 2019 to prevent the delivery of F-35s to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to purchase and deploy Russian S-400 air defense systems.

29.

Jackie Speier opposed the Trump administration's reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which blocks foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive US health aid from providing referrals for abortion services with their own funding.

30.

Jackie Speier believes global warming poses a growing danger and negatively affects the environment.

31.

Jackie Speier worked to improve energy legislation with the Clean Air Rebate Act of 2009, the Home Star Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

32.

On June 27,2019, Jackie Speier introduced a resolution condemning the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and demanding a reevaluation of the US relationship with Saudi Arabia from the secretary of state in response to reports of numerous violations of the human rights of Saudi activists.

33.

Jackie Speier led the successful effort to secure funding in the FY 2020 House-passed appropriations bill for humanitarian demining assistance and ensured that unclassified Department of Defense demining research would be shared with humanitarian demining organizations.

34.

In September 2017, as co-chair of the Ahmadiyya Caucus, Jackie Speier condemned the human rights abuses perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and supported assistance programs that help partner nations build accountable, transparent governance structures.

35.

Jackie Speier opposed the Trump administration's unilateral cuts to the UN Population Fund, which works in more than 150 countries to end preventable maternal deaths, provide voluntary family planning, combat gender-based violence such as child marriage, and train health care workers.

36.

Jackie Speier led a letter with 145 of her colleagues urging the administration to reverse its decision to withhold US funding.

37.

Jackie Speier was a member of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.