Katherine Marlea Clark (born July 17, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as House minority whip since 2023 and is currently in her seventh term as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district, having held the post since 2013. She previously served as assistant speaker from 2021 to 2023 and vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2019 to 2021. Clark was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2008 to 2011 and the Massachusetts Senate from 2011 to 2013.
Born in Connecticut, Clark worked as an attorney in several states before moving to Massachusetts in 1995, where she worked in state government. She joined the Melrose School Committee in 2002, becoming committee chair in 2005. She was first elected to the state legislature in 2008, and contributed to legislation regarding criminal justice, education, and municipal pensions. She won the 2013 special election for the U.S. House of Representatives to succeed Ed Markey in the 5th district, and sits on the House Appropriations Committee.
Clark's district includes many of Boston's northern and western satellite cities and suburbs, such as Medford, Framingham, Woburn, Waltham, and her home city of Revere.
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Early life and career
Katherine Marlea Clark was born on July 17, 1963, in New Haven, Connecticut. She attended St. Lawrence University, Cornell Law School, and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She studied in Nagoya, Japan, in 1983.
In her early career, she worked as an attorney in Chicago. She then moved to Colorado, where she worked as a clerk for Judge Alfred A. Arraj of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado and later as a staff attorney for the Colorado District Attorneys' Council. She moved to Massachusetts in 1995 and became general counsel for the state Office of Child Care Services.
Local politics
In 2001, Clark moved to Melrose, where she was elected to the Melrose School Committee, taking her seat in January 2002. She first ran for the Massachusetts Senate in 2004 and lost to Republican incumbent Richard Tisei. In January 2005, she was unanimously elected chairwoman of the Melrose School Committee. In 2006, she ran for the 32nd Middlesex seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives when incumbent Mike Festa began a run for Middlesex district attorney but withdrew after he dropped out of the race.
Clark was appointed co-chair of Victory 2006, the state Democratic Party's campaign and fundraising effort for the 2006 gubernatorial election. She spent some time as chief of policy and government relations in the Massachusetts Attorney General's office.
Massachusetts legislature
Massachusetts House of Representatives (2008–2011)
Festa resigned his state House seat in October 2007 to become secretary of elder affairs in the Deval Patrick administration, and Clark entered the special election to succeed him. During the campaign, she emphasized her experience as an attorney and made "developing stability in state aid" her top policy issue. She won the Democratic primary in January with 65% of the vote, defeating two other Melrose Democrats. She defeated Republican real estate businessman Mark B. Hutchison, 63% to 37%. In November 2008, she was reelected to a full term unopposed.
Sworn in on March 13, 2008, Clark represented Melrose and Wakefield. She served on both the education, judiciary, and municipalities and the regional government committees.
Massachusetts Senate (2011–2013)
When Tisei resigned from the state senate to run for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Clark ran for his seat. In the Democratic primary, she defeated Stoneham attorney Michael S. Day, 64%–36%. In the November 2010 general election, she defeated Republican Craig Spadafora, 52%–48%.
Clark was sworn in on January 5, 2011. She supports abortion rights and has been endorsed in her campaigns by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund.
In 2011, Clark was co-chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service, where she was lead author of the Senate version of a bill to reform municipal pensions. For her work in 2011, she received legislator of the year awards from the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Massachusetts Police Association. In 2012, she authored a law that takes steps to ensure that all Massachusetts students read at grade level by third grade. Also in 2012, her bill extending restraining orders in domestic violence cases to cover victims' pets, which are often used as pawns in abusive relationships, was signed as part of a larger law on animal shelters. In 2013, she co-sponsored a bill expanding the state's wiretapping authority, which was strictly limited under existing law, in order to help police better investigate violent street crime. At the same time, she co-sponsored a bill to secure electronic privacy protections, requiring police to have probable cause before investigating the electronic records of individuals. She filed another bill tightening sex offender laws, imposing stricter penalties and making offender data more accessible to agencies and the public. The Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts named Clark its 2013 Legislator of the Year for her service on women's issues.
Clark's committee assignments in the state Senate were as follows:
Judiciary (Chair)
Mental Health and Substance Abuse (Vice Chair)
Post Audit and Oversight (Vice Chair)
Public Health
Public Safety and Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives (2013–present)
Elections
Clark was the Democratic nominee in the 2013 special election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Massachusetts's 5th congressional district. The district's longtime incumbent, Ed Markey, had just been elected to the United States Senate six months into his 19th term. In a heavily contested Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district—she was endorsed by Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley and EMILY's List. On October 15, 2013, she won the primary with a plurality of 32% of the vote. Her closest competitor was Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, with 22% of the vote. On December 10, as expected, she easily won the special election.
Clark ran for reelection, won with 81.2% of the vote in the primary, and was unopposed in the general election.
Clark ran for a fourth term and defeated Republican John Hugo in the general election, winning 75.9% of the vote.
Clark ran for a fifth term and defeated Republican Caroline Colarusso in the general election, winning 74.3% of the vote.
Clark ran for a sixth term and defeated Republican Caroline Colarusso for a second time in the general election, this time winning 74% of the vote.
Clark faced primary challengers for the first time in twelve years, with Jonathan Paz and Tarik Samman both running to her left. She won with 74% of the vote and is running unopposed in the general election, thus being set to win an eighth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Tenure
Clark was sworn into office on December 12, 2013, and sits on the House Appropriations Committee. In a 2014 interview with The Boston Globe, she compared life in Washington to the television series House of Cards, saying "It's exactly like here, minus the murders."
Clark was unopposed in her bid for a full term in 2014.
In March 2015, Clark decided not to attend the speech by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a joint session of Congress. She affirmed a commitment to maintaining and strengthening the relationship between the U.S. and Israel but noted that the invitation was offered without first consulting the Obama administration. In 2023, Clark voted to provide Israel with support following the Hamas attack on Israel.
Clark has introduced legislation in response to Internet harassment, most notably resulting from the Gamergate controversy, and has advocated for more stringent enforcement of existing laws. After introducing legislation that would criminalize "swatting" (falsely reporting an ongoing critical incident to dispatch an emergency response), she was herself targeted by a false report of an active shooter at her home.
In January 2017, Clark announced a boycott of Donald Trump's inauguration. She was part of a small group of House and Senate members who chose to boycott the ceremony. Her reason was her desire not to "normalize" Trump's promotion of "bigoted, misogynist, anti-Semitic, and racist claims."
Clark voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 100% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight analysis completed in January 2023.
During an August 2025 town hall event organized by Friends Committee on National Legislation, Clark referred to Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide. However, she walked back this statement soon after the event, saying "I want to be clear I am not accusing Israel of genocide."
On November 28, 2018, it was announced that Clark had defeated California congressman Pete Aguilar to succeed Linda Sánchez as vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
Committee assignments
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development
Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch
Caucus memberships
Animal Protection Caucus
Armenian Caucus
Autism Caucus
Baby Caucus
Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change
Biomedical Research Caucus
Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease
Career and Technical Education
Congressional Taiwan Caucus
Congressional Women's Caucus
Cranberry Caucus
Internet Caucus
Hellenic Caucus
Heroin Task Force
Medicare for All Caucus
Peace Corps Caucus
Pre-K Caucus
Prescription Drug Abuse Caucus
Safe Climate Caucus
Small Brewers Caucus
Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Personal life
Clark is married to Rodney S. Dowell, executive director for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, the state entity that regulates the legal profession in Massachusetts. They live in Revere and have three children. In January 2023, Clark confirmed that her adult daughter was arrested for assault by means of a dangerous weapon and damage to property for allegedly graffiti tagging Boston Common's Parkman Bandstand with the words "NO COP CITY" and "ACAB" during a protest.
As of 2021, Clark shares an apartment with representatives Grace Meng, Lois Frankel, and Julia Brownley, and previously Annie Kuster and Cheri Bustos.