Jared Huffman | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Ranking Member of theHouse Natural Resources Committee | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Raúl Grijalva |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's2nd district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Lynn Woolsey |
| Member of theCalifornia State Assembly from the6th district | |
| In office December 4, 2006 – November 30, 2012 | |
| Preceded by | Joe Nation |
| Succeeded by | Beth Gaines |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jared William Huffman (1964-02-18)February 18, 1964 (age 61) Independence, Missouri, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Susan Huffman |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of California, Santa Barbara (BA) Boston College (JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
Jared William Huffman (born February 18, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician serving as theU.S. representative forCalifornia's 2nd congressional district since 2013. A member of theDemocratic Party, Huffman represented the6th district in theCalifornia State Assembly from 2006 to 2012. He chaired the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee and the Assembly Environmental Caucus. He was elected to Congress in 2012 with more than 70% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Dan Roberts.[1] His congressional district covers theNorth Coast from theGolden Gate Bridge to theOregon border.
Huffman was born inIndependence, Missouri.[2] He graduated fromWilliam Chrisman High School in 1982 and in 1986 received hisBachelor of Arts inpolitical sciencemagna cum laude fromUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, where he was a member of thePhi Delta Theta fraternity.[3][4] At UCSB, Huffman was a three-time All-American volleyball player. He was a member of theUSA Volleyball Team in 1987 when the team was top-ranked worldwide and had recently won the World Championship. He graduatedcum laude fromBoston College Law School in 1990, and then moved to theSan Francisco Bay Area.[2][5]
Huffman worked as a consumer attorney specializing in public interest cases. Among his court victories was a case on behalf of theNational Organization for Women, which required allCalifornia State University campuses to comply withTitle IX.[6] Huffman was a senior attorney for theNatural Resources Defense Council. In 1994, he was elected to theMarin Municipal Water District.[2] He served on the board for 12 years, including three terms as its president.[5]
Huffman won the Democratic nomination for the 6th district, an open seat after incumbentJoe Nation was termed out, in a hotly contested June 2006 primary in which he surprised the political establishment with a victory over Pamela Torliatt, aPetaluma city councilwoman, and Cynthia Murray, a Marin County Supervisor who was initially considered the front-runner. Huffman also defeated Assistant State Attorney GeneralDamon Connolly,Marin County Democratic chairman John Alden, and sociologist Alex Easton-Brown.
Huffman defeated Republican nominee Michael Hartnett by a more than 2:1 margin in the 2006 general election.
Huffman faced two opponents in the 2008 general election: Republican Paul Lavery and Libertarian Timothy Hannan. He won 70% of the vote, and the 137,873 votes he received were among the most by any California Assembly candidate in 2008. In theDemocratic primary, Huffman was unopposed and received 57,213 votes—the most of any California Assemblymember in that election.
In theJune 2010 California primary, Huffman defeated[7] Patrick Connally.[8] He defeated Republican nominee Robert Stephens in the general election[7] with more than 70% of the vote—the highest winning margin of any candidate on the ballot in the North Bay that year. Due to term limits, Huffman could not seek a fourth Assembly term in 2012.
In his first four years as a legislator, Huffman authored and passed more than 40 pieces of legislation.[9] In 2008, he sponsored a bill (AB 2950), which he wrote with internet attorneyDaniel Balsam, that aimed to close what its proponents characterized as loopholes in theCAN-SPAM Act that made it more difficult to bring lawsuits against deceptive spammers.[10] The bill passed the State Assembly and Senate, but GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.[11][12]
In 2009, Huffman authored a bill (AB 1437) to require all shelled eggs sold in California to comply withProposition 2's requirement that egg-laying hens be raised with enough space to fully extend their limbs and turn around.[13] The law was signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2010 and took effect on January 1, 2015.[14] It was later codified and expanded by2018 California Proposition 12, which prohibited the sale of products from animals raised inbattery cages,gestation crates, andveal crates.
On February 14, 2011, Huffman co-sponsored a bill withPaul Fong, California Assembly Bill 376, to make it illegal to possess, distribute, or sell shark fins, except for research or commercial purposes.[15]
Upon his swearing-in on December 4, 2006, Assembly speakerFabian Núñez named Huffman chair of the Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. In August 2008, the new Assembly speaker,Karen Bass, named Huffman to chair the Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee.
After 20-year incumbentLynn Woolsey announced her retirement, Huffman entered the race to run for her seat in the2nd district, which had been renumbered from the 6th in redistricting.[16] California's 2nd congressional district now covers six counties:Marin,Sonoma,Mendocino,Trinity,Humboldt, andDel Norte.
Huffman finished first in the top-two primary, with 37% of the vote.[17] In November, he defeated Republican candidate Dan Roberts 71%–29%.[18][19]
In his first reelection campaign, Huffman dominated the open primary, receiving 67.9% of the vote against 22.3% for second-place finisher Dale Mensing, a Republican. He defeated Mensing in the general election, 75% to 25%.[20]
Huffman defeated Mensing again, receiving 68.3% of the primary vote to Mensing's 15.7% and 76.5% of the general election vote to Mensing's 23.5%.[21]
Huffman defeated Mensing a third time, with 72.5% of the primary vote to Mensing's 20.9%[22] and 77.0% of the vote in the general election.[23]
Huffman defeated Mensing a fourth time, with 67.7% of the primary vote to Mensing's 18.9% and 75.7% of the general election vote.[24]
In April 2018, Huffman,Jerry McNerney,Jamie Raskin, andDan Kildee launched theCongressional Freethought Caucus. Its stated goals include "pushing public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values"; promoting the "separation of church and state"; and opposing discrimination against "atheists, agnostics, humanists, seekers, religious and non-religious persons", among others. Huffman and Raskin are co-chairs.[25]
In the aftermath of theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops's vote to draft a document regarding Catholic politicians' worthiness to receive Communion, Huffman accused the Church of "weaponizing" its religion, and suggested that it should lose its tax-exempt status.[26]
Huffman voted with PresidentJoe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the117th Congress, according to aFiveThirtyEight analysis.[27]
On July 19, 2024, Huffman called for Joe Biden to withdraw from the2024 United States presidential election.[28]
For the118th Congress:[29]
Huffman opposed theoverturning ofRoe v. Wade, calling it "sad, outrageous" and saying, "it's going to be tragic for millions of women in this country."[35] He described the U.S. Supreme Court as "extreme, out of touch" and "right-wing".[36]
Huffman was among the 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of theFiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.[37]
On November 2, 2023, after theOctober 7 attacks four weeks earlier, killing about 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages, Huffman joined only 22 other Congressmembers in voting against H. Res. 798, a House resolution that condemned the support of Hamas and Hezbollah on university campuses and which passed with the bipartisan support of 213 Republicans and 183 Democrats.[38] After receiving swift criticism from Jewish American groups and other constituents, several days later Huffman disavowed his vote and issued a public apology.[39]
On June 11, 2024, Huffman unveiled The Stop Project 2025 Task Force, led by a group of House Democrats, to combat the right-wingProject 2025 policy proposals for a radically reshapedU.S. federal government should a Republican president be elected in the2024 U.S. presidential election, which was authored bythe Heritage Foundation, a conservativethink tank.[40][41]
Huffman warned that the Project 2025 agenda would hit "like ablitzkrieg" (a "lightning war") and that lawmakers would need to be prepared to tackle it well in advance.[40] "If we're trying to react to it and understand it in real time, it's too late," he stated.[40] He described Project 2025 as "a wrecking ball against everything that most of us hold dear about our country and our democracy,"[41] adding "that's the biggest challenge we face ... How do you explain that this really is what they're going to do without overwhelming people?"[41]
Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America – a bill that would "amend theSurface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to require state programs for regulation ofsurface coal mining to incorporate the necessary rule concerning excess spoil, coal mine waste, and buffers for perennial and intermittent streams published by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on December 12, 2008."[42] Huffman opposed the bill, arguing that it should be opposed because the supporters "believe coal companies should be allowed to blow the tops off mountains and dump the waste into streams, no matter what the science says about the consequence for our environment and the public health."[43]
Water Rights Protection Act – a bill that would prevent federal agencies from requiring certain entities to relinquish their water rights to the United States to usepublic lands.[44] The bill was a reaction to theUnited States Forest Service's decision to pursue a "new regulation to demand that water rights be transferred to the federal government as a condition for obtaining permits needed to operate 121 ski resorts that cross over federal lands."[45] Huffman opposed the bill and accused the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power of being unnecessarily "adversarial" and having "unfairly vilified" the Forest Service after a committee hearing about the bill.[45]
Huffman lives inSan Rafael with his wife, Susan, and their two children.[46] His hobby iswinemaking.[47]
In a 2017 interview withThe Washington Post's Michelle Boorstein, Huffman identified as ahumanist and said "I suppose you could say I don't believe in God." Previously in his career, he had declined to discuss his religious beliefs or apply any label when asked.[48] Huffman is the only elected member of theU.S. House who openly describes himself asreligiously unaffiliated and asecular humanist. Huffman is also the only member ofCongress whoopenly rejects theexistence of God.[49] He has also stated that he doesn't believe inlife after death.[50]
| Year | Office | Party | Primary | General | Result | Swing | Ref. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | Total | % | P. | |||||||||
| 2006 | State Assembly | 6th | Democratic | 22,544 | 32.47% | 1st | 106,589 | 65.84% | 1st | Won | Hold | [51] | ||
| 2008 | 57,213 | 100.0% | 1st | 145,142 | 69.45% | 1st | Won | Hold | [52] | |||||
| 2010 | 53,534 | 81.77% | 1st | 119,753 | 70.45% | 1st | Won | Hold | [53] | |||||
| 2012 | U.S. House | 2nd | 63,922 | 37.47% | 1st | 226,216 | 71.24% | 1st | Won | Hold | [54] | |||
| 2014 | 99,186 | 67.91% | 1st | 163,124 | 74.99% | 1st | Won | Hold | [55] | |||||
| 2016 | 157,897 | 68.30% | 1st | 254,194 | 76.85% | 1st | Won | Hold | [56] | |||||
| 2018 | 144,005 | 72.48% | 1st | 243,081 | 77.01% | 1st | Won | Hold | [57] | |||||
| 2020 | 184,155 | 67.69% | 1st | 294,435 | 75.74% | 1st | Won | Hold | [58] | |||||
| 2022 | 145,245 | 68.73% | 1st | 229,720 | 74.40% | 1st | Won | Hold | [59] | |||||
| 2024 | 170,271 | 73.45% | 1st | 272,883 | 71.88% | 1st | Won | Hold | [60] | |||||
| Source:Secretary of State of California |Statewide Election Results | ||||||||||||||
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 2nd congressional district 2013–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theHouse Natural Resources Committee 2025–present | |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 106th | Succeeded by |
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