Jake Auchincloss | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's4th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Joe Kennedy III |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jacob Daniel Auchincloss (1988-01-29)January 29, 1988 (age 37) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (before 2013, 2015–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Independent (2014–2015) Republican (2013–2014) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | Melvin J. Glimcher (grandfather) Harvey Bundy (great-grandfather) McGeorge Bundy (grand-uncle) SeeAuchincloss family |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MBA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service | |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank | Major |
| Battles/wars | War in Afghanistan |
Auchincloss on his career in thetech industry at the 2022 State of the Net conference. Recorded February 2022 | |
Jacob Daniel Auchincloss (/ˈɔːkɪnklɒs/AW-kin-kloss; born January 29, 1988) is an American politician, businessman, andMarine Corps officer serving as theU.S. representative forMassachusetts's 4th congressional district since 2021. A member of theDemocratic Party, he previously served as a member of theNewton City Council from 2015 to 2021.
Born toa wealthy family inNew England, Auchincloss graduated with a bachelor's degree fromHarvard University in 2010. Commissioning into theU.S. Marine Corps that same year, he was deployed toAfghanistan in 2012 and toPanama in 2014. He currently serves in theMarine Corps Reserve with the rank ofmajor.
Returning home from the military, Auchincloss ran for Newton city council in 2015. After his election victory, he earned anMBA from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. In2020, he was elected to theUnited States Congress at age 32, succeedingJoe Kennedy III.
Jacob Daniel Auchincloss was born on January 29, 1988, inNewton, Massachusetts, toLaurie Glimcher andHugh Auchincloss.[1] Both of his parents arephysician-scientists specializing inimmunology. His father, also a surgeon, served briefly as the interim director of theNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases afterAnthony Fauci resigned in 2023.[2] His mother is a scientist and the former president and CEO ofDana–Farber Cancer Institute who was at the center of several controversies prior to stepping down from her leadership role.[3][4][5]Auchincloss's maternal grandfather,Melvin J. Glimcher, pioneered the development of artificial limbs and therobotic arm, and was chair oforthopedic surgery atHarvard University.[6][7] Auchincloss's grandfather was first cousin once removed fromHugh D. Auchincloss Jr., step-father to bothFirst Lady of the United StatesJacqueline Kennedy and authorGore Vidal.[8]
Auchincloss was raised in Newton with his sister, Kalah, and brother, Hugh G., and attendedNewton North High School.[9] He isJewish bymatrilineality and was raised in his mother's faith.[10] His father is ofScottish ancestry.[11]
Auchincloss studiedgovernment andeconomics atHarvard University, graduating in 2010 with aBachelor of Arts with honors. He served in theU.S. Marine Corps[12] then returned to school and earned aMaster of Business Administration infinance in 2016 from theMIT Sloan School of Management.[13][14]
After graduating from Harvard, Auchincloss joined theUnited States Marine Corps, earning his commission throughOfficer Candidates School inQuantico, Virginia. He commanded infantry inHelmand Province in 2012 and a reconnaissance unit inPanama in 2014. In Helmand, he led combat patrols through villages contested by theTaliban. In Panama, his team of reconnaissance Marines partnered with Colombian special operations to train thePanamanian Public Forces in drug-interdiction tactics.[15]
Auchincloss completed both infantry training in Quantico and the Marine Corps's reconnaissance training inCalifornia, profiled in Nate Fick'sOne Bullet Away. He graduated from theSurvival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school in Maine and was an honor graduate from the Basic Airborne Course in Georgia. He remained in theIndividual Ready Reserve after leaving active duty and was promoted tomajor on September 1, 2020.[16]
After returning home from the military, Auchincloss worked forCharlie Baker's successful2014 gubernatorial campaign.[17][18]
In 2015, Auchincloss ran for Newton City Council on a platform of full-daykindergarten and expandedpre-K offerings. He defeated the incumbent councilor.[19][20] He was reelected to the Newton City Council in 2017 and 2019.[21][22] He chaired the transportation and public safety committee.[23] In office, he supported progressive immigration and housing policies, sustainable transportation and co-docketed the successfulSanctuary city ordinance.[24][25]
When the Newton City Council debated a pay raise for elected officials, Auchincloss voted no.[26] Auchincloss was the first elected official to endorse Ruthanne Fuller for mayor of Newton.[27]
While serving on the Newton City Council and attending MIT, Auchincloss was the director of theMIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.[28] He also worked at acybersecurity startup as a product manager and atLiberty Mutual as a senior manager at its innovation arm, Solaria Labs.[25]
On October 2, 2019, Auchincloss announced his candidacy for the openMassachusetts's 4th congressional district to succeedJoe Kennedy III, whounsuccessfully ran for the Senate against incumbent DemocratEd Markey.[29]
Auchincloss raised the most money during the primary election in both the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020 and earned endorsements from theNational Association of Government Employees,VoteVets,The Boston Globe andJames E. Timilty.[30][31][32][33] He earned the support of several Newton politicians, including the president and vice president of the city council and the chair and vice chair of the school committee.[34] He earned additional endorsements throughout the district.[35]
During the campaign, questions arose about his party affiliation. Auchincloss was originally a Democrat but was a registered Republican from 2013 to 2014 while working forCharlie Baker's gubernatorial campaign. He continued to vote in Republican primaries as an independent until late 2015 before becoming a Democrat again.[36]
Auchincloss faced some controversies throughout the campaign and apologized for his old statements that defended the harassment of Black students with aConfederate flag for protecting Newton's free speech values and compared it to banning a pride flag or Black Lives Matter banner, appeared to justify the burning of theQuran, for making fun of a local community efforts' to renameColumbus Day "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in 2016 and he voted against a symbolic 1 percent decrease in the local police budget. He modeled himself after the moderate Republican GovernorCharlie Baker.[37][38][39][40][41][42][43]
The Democratic primary took place on September 1, 2020.[44] In a race with eight other candidates, Auchincloss won with 22.4% of the vote. It took theAssociated Press three days to call the race because nearly one million votes were cast through mail-in ballots due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[45]
In the November general election, Auchincloss defeated Republican nominee Julie Hall. He assumed office on January 3, 2021.[46]
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On January 6, 2021, after the2021 attack on the United States Capitol, Auchincloss tweeted his agreement with lawmakers' calls to remove PresidentDonald Trump from office, either through theTwenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution orimpeachment. Auchincloss voted to certify the results of the2020 United States presidential election in the early morning of January 7, 2021. On January 21, he voted to approve the congressional waiver forGeneral Lloyd Austin,President Joe Biden's nominee forSecretary of Defense.
On June 16, 2022, seven people affiliated withThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, includingRobert Smigel, were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police and charged with unlawful entry into the complex.[47] According to a letter fromJim Jordan andRodney Davis, the Colbert crew was let back into the building with the help of Auchincloss andAdam Schiff, leading to the unlawful entry charges.[48] In a statement released by an Auchincloss spokesperson, Matt Corridoni said of the incident, "We do not condone any inappropriate activity and cannot speak to anything that occurred after hours."[49]
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In Congress, Auchincloss voted with PresidentJoe Biden 100% of the time according toFiveThirtyEight. This gives him a Biden Plus/Minus score of +1 with higher support for Biden than would be expected given the makeup of his district.[50] Auchincloss backed Biden to run for re-election in2024 and urged Democrats to more aggressively defend him despiteconcerns about his age and health, including on right wing media.[51]
On January 25, 2023, Auchincloss delivered a one-minute speech on the House floor entirely generated usingChatGPT, making it the first speech in Congress to be written withartificial intelligence programs. The speech was about creating a U.S.–Israel research facility centered on artificial intelligence.[52]
Auchincloss endorsed Pennsylvania governorJosh Shapiro for role of Kamala Harris' running mate in the2024 Presidential election outlining his centrist appeal, "Harris needs to win Pennsylvania, signal moderation and reassure Haley voters that she'll stand up to the left. The more the Twitter left piles on [Shapiro], the more helpful he is to Harris."[53]
On September 17, 2023, Auchincloss toldThe Boston Globe that he would not be challenging Ed Markey in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, ending long-running speculation that he may join the race. He said he would instead be focusing on serving as the inaugural chairman ofMajority Democrats, a new group of Democratic elected officials.[54]
In 2022, Auchincloss criticized the far-left and right as "carnival barkers forsocialism orstrong-man rule." He said that the goal is not to "scold the other side" but to "work on what the two sides agree on." He has held varied political positions over his career, starting as a Republican in local government, then running for Congress as a moderate, and later emphasizing his progressivism in his first term in Congress. He returned to his moderate positions after his first term in 2022.[55]
Auchincloss calls himself anBarack Obama-Charlie Baker Democrat and is a critic of the Democratic Party's progressive wing. He is a fan ofJonathan Haidt's moral psychology and believes Democrats lost ground by not being seen as upholding "social order," which he defines as care, fairness, authority, and loyalty. He argues that the "cost disease" is a key factor eroding this sense of order and has also targeted social-media companies for delivering "digital dopamine" to children citing Haidt as an influence. He said that open-air encampments should be cleared and criticized Democrats for not being "muscular" enough in addressing homelessness and crime.[56] He has argued that the current Democratic Party is too preoccupied with policing ideology, "There used to be this old joke: 'Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line, It is exactly the opposite. Democrats are much more ideologically straitjacketed these days. We cancel each other." He said that he misses when "it was cool to be a Democrat." Reflecting on the party's pre-COVID image, he recalledBill Clinton's 1992 saxophone performance onThe Arsenio Hall Show, calling it "the coolest freaking thing."[57]
Auchincloss has called forbalancing the budget, "The last president to balance the budget was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, every single president since then has put either tax cuts or spending on a credit card … I think there's an opening for Democrats to say, the last president to balance the budget was a Democrat. The next president is going to be a Democrat, too."[57][58]
Auchincloss has authored a bill to raise the age of internet adulthood to 16.[56] He has said that the political left is "carrying the water" for some of the most "pernicious and nefarious corporations in modern history," specifically referring to social media companies. He expressed his reluctance to accept criticism of corporate power from them, arguing that they were inadvertently supporting these powerful tech corporations.[59][60] Auchincloss co-sponsored the bipartisanTikTok forced divestiture or ban bill.[61][62] He said that the legislation is not just about national security but also about controlling social media companies' "attention fracking" and that it is self-evident that TikTok is disproportionately promotinganti-America andanti-Israel content to its American users. He called TikTok "digitalfentanyl".[63]
Auchincloss attracted attention in 2021 for his objections toH.R. 3 (Elijah Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act), House Democrats' prescription drug pricing reform. Alongside RepresentativeScott Peters, he co-authored a letter to SpeakerNancy Pelosi warning that international reference pricing "would discourage research and development" and undermine the "innovation ecosystem." Auchincloss later specifically objected to H.R. 3's clause capping prescription prices subject to federal negotiation at 120% of the average price in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom and argued that "price controls … because of the uncertainty they create, are a massive deterrent to risk capital that invests in the next generation of drugs" warning of lost jobs in Massachusetts' biotechnology sector.[64][65]
Health policy experts characterized these arguments as indistinguishable from pharmaceutical industry rhetoric;Boston University professor Rena Conti remarked that "there is very limited daylight, if any, between what his position was in May and Pharma's positions," whileHarvard Medical School'sAaron Kesselheim described the claims as a "scare tactic." Auchincloss' position drew additional scrutiny because his 2020 campaign had benefited from asuper PACExperienced Leadership Matters which raised a total of $575,000; funded partly by pharmaceutical insiders, including $105,000 from his mother, Dr. Glimcher, the president ofDana-Farber Cancer Institute and aGlaxoSmithKline board member, and because he had personally raised nearly $95,000 from top executives and investors in the industry. Progressive groups criticized him for "blocking efforts to lower your drug prices" and mounted local pressure campaigns and ads, after which he became a co-sponsor of H.R. 3. Auchincloss' office rejected claims of undue influence, stating that "donations do not impact his views" and that he "doesn't make his decisions based on positive or negative IEs."[64][65]
In response to polling by the progressive groupDemand Progress showing that pro-growth "abundance agenda" messaging performed significantly worse with voters than anti-corporateeconomic populist themes, Auchincloss dismissed the findings saying, "It’s what happens when you test an economic textbook for the Democratic Party against a romance novel, it's such a bad poll."[66][67][59]
Auchincloss has argued that "the Republicans engage in identity politics that is intertwined with Christian nationalism. The Democrats engage in identity politics that is intertwined in evaluating individuals based on group identity, rather than as individuals. I think the path for Democrats is to reject both". He added, "I'm worried that the version that Democrats are going to align on is Diet Coke when MAGA is Coca-Cola: dial down thewokeism and then amplify the economic populism." and has instead called forsupply-side economics that avoidsprotectionism, embracesfree trade as a tool to contain China, and more closely resembles the now-"unfashionable" approaches associated withBill Clinton andBarack Obama.[68][69][70]
He has criticized the "boldface-name Democrats have been leaning into populism". He has promoted an "abundance agenda" and has likenedleft-wing populism to "offering a Diet Coke to voters who ordered a Coca-Cola" and asked Democrats to reject it. He said Democrats "win by offering an agenda of our own, not a diluted version of MAGA."[58][71][72]
Auchincloss voted to provide Israel with support following the2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[73][74] In October 2023, Auchincloss rejected calls for a ceasefire in theGaza war, saying that "Calls for de-escalation, even if well-meaning, are premature, Israel needs the military latitude to re-establish deterrence and root out the nodes of terrorism. Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on September 12, 2001."[75] He rejected Massachusetts SenatorEd Markey’s call for de-escalation saying, "Now is not the time for equivocation. Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization … Israel is a liberal democracy with the right and responsibility to defend itself and its citizens."[76]
At a July 2025 town hall in Newton, Massachusetts, Auchincloss faced public criticism over his stance on the ongoing war in Gaza. Amidst theGaza starvation, Auchincloss reiterated his position that Hamas bore sole responsibility for the conflict and humanitarian crisis, asserting that the militant group was is "singularly responsible for atrocities in the Middle East right now" and had "singular power" to end the war by releasing hostages. While acknowledging unacceptable humanitarian conditions in Gaza and disputing Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there was no starvation, Auchincloss said that the blame lay primarily with Hamas. He described the group as having "eviscerated" the Palestinian people over the previous 15 years and cited instances of violence attributed to it.[77][78] He has been described as a pro-Israel lawmaker.[78]
Auchincloss authored a letter to Secretary of StateMarco Rubio urging caution and diplomatic engagement following a landmarkArab League statement condemning Hamas and supporting a two-state solution. He described the statement as "a rare and urgent opportunity" to disarm Hamas and advance peace and criticized "unilateral and performative recognitions of a Palestinian state" as emboldening Hamas and undermining peace, calling instead for U.S.-led diplomacy rooted in "mutual recognition, security, and dignity". He urged Rubio "to use every tool available" to help secure the release of hostages and remove Hamas from power, calling it "a chance to protect Israel–our strongest ally–and align American values with regional momentum, and also leave a lasting legacy."[79][80]
As of July 2025, Auchincloss has received an "A" rating from theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) based on public statements and voting records.[81]
In August 2023, Auchincloss was one of nine House Democrats who voted in favor of a Republican-led amendment to theNational Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibiting the teaching of "race-based theories" in schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity, introduced by Republican RepresentativeChip Roy. While most Democrats opposed the amendment as part of a broader Republican effort to target so-called "Critical Race Theory," Auchincloss described it as a "tough vote." In a statement, he said he was "reluctant to lend credence to the GOP's parade of preposterous claims about the military, an institution I served and deeply respect for historically being on the vanguard of diversity and inclusion efforts." However, he also argued that the amendment was "tightly constructed to affirm that the military shouldn't teach service members' children that any race is inherently superior to any other or that an individual's worth is determined by their race," calling it "an appropriate affirmation for military schools at a time when both the military and schools are under increasing political pressure from bad actors on the right."[82]
Source:[84]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jake Auchincloss | 34,971 | 22.4 | |
| Democratic | Jesse Mermell | 32,938 | 21.1 | |
| Democratic | Becky Grossman | 28,311 | 18.1 | |
| Democratic | Natalia Linos | 18,158 | 11.6 | |
| Democratic | Ihssane Leckey | 17,346 | 11.1 | |
| Democratic | Alan Khazei | 14,305 | 9.2 | |
| Democratic | Chris Zannetos(withdrawn) | 5,091 | 3.3 | |
| Democratic | David Cavell(withdrawn) | 2,472 | 1.6 | |
| Democratic | Ben Sigel | 2,437 | 1.6 | |
| Total votes | 156,029 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jake Auchincloss | 244,275 | 60.9 | |
| Republican | Julie Hall | 157,029 | 39.1 | |
| Total votes | 401,304 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jake Auchincloss (incumbent) | 201,882 | 96.9 | |
| Write-in | 6,397 | 3.1 | ||
| Total votes | 291,569 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jake Auchincloss (incumbent) | 289,347 | 97.2 | |
| Write-in | 8,378 | 2.8 | ||
| Total votes | 297,725 | 100.0 | ||
On July 28, 2017, Auchincloss married his wife, Michelle. They have three children: a son and two daughters. They live inNewtonville, Massachusetts.[92][93]
Marrazzo is expected to begin her role in the fall, the NIH said. She will take over from Dr. Hugh Auchincloss Jr., who has served as acting director since Dr. Anthony Fauci stepped down from the post in December.
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 4th congressional district 2021–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 244th | Succeeded by |
| People | |
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| Other | |
