This article will answer every question you have about Katherine Clark. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about her.
- What does Katherine Clark do for a living?
- Who are Katherine Clark’s parents and siblings?
- What are Katherine Clark’s interests and hobbies?
- Is Katherine Clark married or does she have a girlfriend/ boyfriend?
- Does Katherine Clark have any children?
- Where is Katherine Clark now?
- How tall is Katherine Clark?
- How much money does Katherine Clark earn?
- What is Katherine Clark’s net worth?
N/B: Please read the entire post to have all your questions answered.
Who is Katherine Clark?
Katherine Marlea Clark is a known American politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 5th congressional district since 2013. Clark has been Assistant House Democratic Leader (officially Assistant Speaker) since 2021, making her the 4th-highest-ranking House Democrat. Clark’s district consists of many of Boston’s northern and western suburbs, including Framingham, Medford, Waltham, Woburn, and her hometown of Revere. She was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2008 to 2011 and Massachusetts Senate from 2011 to 2013.
Born in Connecticut, she served as an attorney in various states, prior to moving to Massachusetts in 1995, where she served in state government. Clark joined the Melrose School Committee in 2002, becoming committee chair in 2005. She was also first elected to the state legislature in 2008 and contributed to legislation regarding criminal justice, municipal pensions, and education. Clark then 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.
Katherine Clark Career
Early career
She served as an attorney in Chicago in her early career. Clark then moved to Colorado, where she served as a clerk for Judge Alfred A. Arraj of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Later, she worked as a staff attorney for the Colorado District Attorney’s Council. Clark then moved to Massachusetts in 1995 and became general counsel for the state Office of Child Care Services.
Local politics.
Clark moved to Melrose in 2001 and was elected to the Melrose School Committee, taking her position in January 2002. She initially ran for the Massachusetts Senate in 2004 and lost to Republican incumbent Richard Tisei. Clark was then unanimously elected chairwoman of the Melrose School Committee in January 2005. She ran for the 32nd Middlesex seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2006 when incumbent Mike Festa started a run for Middlesex district attorney but withdrew after he dropped out of the race. Clark was then appointed co-chair of Victory 2006, the state Democratic Party’s campaign and fundraising effort for the 2006 gubernatorial election. Katherine spent some time as Chief of Policy and Government Relations in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.
Massachusetts legislature
Massachusetts House of Representatives
In October 2007, Festa resigned his state House seat to become Secretary of Elder Affairs in the Deval Patrick administration, and Clark joined the special election to succeed him. During the campaign, Clark emphasized her experience as an attorney and made ”developing stability in state aid” her top policy issue. In January, Clark won the Democratic primary with 65% of the vote, defeating 2 other Melrose Democrats. She beat Republican real estate businessman Mark B. Hutchison, 63% to 37%. Clark was then reelected to a full term unopposed in November 2008. She represented Melrose and Wakefield, after being sworn in on March 13, 2008. Clark served on the Education, Municipalities, and Regional Government Committees and Judiciary.
How old is Katherine Clark?
Katherine Marlea Clark was born on July 17, 1963, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., and is aged 59 years. She shares her birthday with famous people including Matt Slays, Luke Bryan, Alex Ernst, Kali Uchis, Cory Cotton, Derrick Henry, Jason Clarke, Elena Anaya, Eric Winter, Tom Fletcher, and Sarah Jones, among others.
Katherine Clark Family
Who are Katherine Clark’s parents?
Katherine Marlea Clark was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to Judy Clark and Chan Clark. She has not shared much information about her family and parents with the media.
Does Katherine Clark have siblings?
She has not shared any information about her family or siblings with the media and it is not clear if she has any siblings.
Katherine Clark Education
Clark attended St. Lawrence University, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree. She then joined Corneil University prior to joining Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Katherine Clark Spouse
In 1992, Clark married Rodney S. Dowell, Chief Bar Counsel for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, the state entity that regulates the legal profession in Massachusetts. The couple has been happily married to date with three children and resides in Revere.
Katherine Clark Kids
Clark and her spouse Dowell have three children together in their marriage. Her children are Nathaniel Dowell, Addison Dowell, and Jared Dowell, and one of them identifies as non-binary.
Katherine Clark Height
Clark has a well-curved, beautiful and physically fit body with a height of 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) and a weight of 67 kg (147 lbs).
Massachusetts Senate
When Tisei resigned his state senate seat to vie for lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Katherine ran for his seat. In the Democratic primary, Clark defeated Stoneham attorney Michael S. Day, 64% to 36%. She then defeated Republican Craig Spadafora, 52% to 48% in the November 2010 general election. She was sworn in on January 5, 2022. Clark is a pro-choice legislator and has been endorsed in her campaigns by NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund.
Katherine was co-chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service in 2011, where she was the lead author of the Senate version of a bill to reform municipal pensions. For her efforts in 2011, Clark earned legislator of the year awards from the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Massachusetts Police Association. In 2012, Clark authored a law that takes steps to ensure that all Massachusetts students read at grade level by third grade. The same year, 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, Clark co-sponsored a bill expanding the state’s wiretapping authority, which was strictly limited under existing law, in order to assist police in better investigating violent street crime. She also co-sponsored a bill to secure electronic privacy protections, requiring police to have probable cause prior to investigating the electronic records of individuals. Clark 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 her its 2013 Legislator of the Year for her service on women’s issues.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2013 special
Katherine 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 State Senate six months into his 19th term. In a heavily contested Democratic primary-the real contest in this heavily Democratic district-Clark was endorsed by Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley and EMILY’s list. She then won the primary with a plurality of 32% of the vote on October 15, 2013. Clark’s closest competitor was Middlesex County Sherriff Peter Koutoujian, with 22% of the vote. As expected, she easily won the special election on December 10.
Tenure
On December 12, 2013, Katherine was sworn into office and sits on the House Appropriations Committee. She was unopposed in her bid for a full term in 2014. In March 2015, she opted not to attend the speech by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to a joint session of Congress. Clark affirmed a commitment to maintaining and strengthening the relationship between the U.S. and Israel ut noted that the invitation was offered without first consulting the Obama administration.
She then introduced legislation in response to Internet harassment, most notably resulting from the Gamergate controversy. Clark has also advocated for more stringent enforcement of existing laws. Following introducing legislation that would criminalize ”swatting”, Clark was herself targeted by a false report of an active shooter at her home. She then revealed a boycott of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Clark was part of a small unit of House and Senate members who choose to boycott the ceremony. Her reason was her desire not to ”normalize” Trump’s promotion of bigoted, anti-Semitic, misogynist, and racist claims.
House Democratic Caucus vice chair
It was revealed that she had defeated California congressman Petet Aguilar to succeed Linda Sanchez as Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus on November 28, 2018.
House Democratic assistant speaker
It was then announced that Katherine had defeated Rhode Island congressman David Cicilline by a vote of 135 to 92 to succeed Ben Ray Lujan as Assistant Speaker, the number four spot in Democratic house leadership on November 18, 2020. She has been mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. However, after Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn revealed their retirement from party leadership in November 2022. Katherine announced a bid for party whip, the number 2 spot in Democratic House leadership, instead.
Katherine Clark Net Worth
American politician, Clark has been active in politics from 2001 to the present and has served in different roles. She has been able to gather an estimated net worth of around $1-5 million as of 2022.