The new Congress · Across Pennsylvania Avenue: the leaders of Congress
House Minority Whip
The No. 2 House Democrat since 2023, expected to become the first woman to serve as House Majority Leader when the Democratic majority elected on November 3, 2026 takes over in January.
Katherine Clark was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 17, 1963. 1 She holds a bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University, a law degree from Cornell and a master's in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. 1 She began her career as a lawyer in Chicago and then in Colorado, where she clerked for a federal judge and worked for the state's council of district attorneys. 1 She moved to Massachusetts in 1995 to become general counsel of the state Office of Child Care Services and later served as policy chief in the state attorney general's office. 1 2
Clark entered elected office on the Melrose School Committee in 2002 and became its chair in 2005. 1 She served in the Massachusetts House from 2008 to 2011 and the state Senate from 2011 to 2013. 1 When Ed Markey moved to the U.S. Senate, she won the December 10, 2013 special election for his House seat in the suburbs north and west of Boston and was sworn in two days later. 1 2 The district runs from Revere and Winthrop on the coast to the MetroWest towns. 2 She lives in Revere with her husband. 2
In the House, Clark joined the Appropriations Committee and climbed the Democratic leadership ladder: vice chair of the caucus from 2019 to 2021, then assistant speaker from 2021 to 2023, a post she won 135 to 92 over David Cicilline. 1 2 House Democrats elected her whip on November 30, 2022, and she took the job, the second-ranking position in the caucus, on January 3, 2023. 1 2 Her office says she is one of only two women to have held it. 2 The Associated Press says she, Hakeem Jeffries and Pete Aguilar have generally worked as a team. 3
As whip, Clark has been responsible for holding Democratic votes together against the Republican agenda, including the January 8, 2026 vote in which essentially all Democrats and a group of Republicans passed a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, 230 to 196. 9 During the 43-day shutdown in the fall of 2025, Republicans seized on her remark in a Fox News interview that the shutdown was one of the few points of leverage Democrats had. 6 8 In 2026 she drew her first primary challengers in twelve years, two candidates running to her left, and won with about three-quarters of the vote. 1 7
Democrats won the House on November 3, 2026. 10 The next day Jeffries announced at a news conference that Clark would run for majority leader, the No. 2 post in the new majority. 4 The Associated Press reports that she is expected to win it and would be the first woman to hold the job, with Aguilar expected to succeed her as whip. 3 5 House Democrats are scheduled to hold their leadership elections on November 18 and 19, and the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027. 4 5
The acts and events that have defined the post so far, oldest first.
At a town hall held by a Quaker lobbying group, described Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide; she later withdrew the characterization. 1
Republicans and the White House circulated her Fox News remark that the government shutdown, while harmful to families, was one of the few moments of leverage Democrats had; the interview was played on a loop outside Speaker Johnson's office. 6
The House passed a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, 230 to 196, after a Democratic discharge petition forced the vote over Republican leaders' objections; essentially all Democrats voted yes. 9
Won the Democratic primary for an eighth term over Jonathan Paz and Tarik Samman. With 99 percent of the vote counted she had 84,645 votes to 22,553 for Paz and 7,515 for Samman. 7
House Democrats are scheduled to meet on November 18 and 19 to elect their leaders for the next Congress. 4
What critics, courts or investigators have said, and the answer given. An allegation is not a finding.
Republicans, including the White House, accused Clark of admitting that Democrats were using a shutdown that hurt families as political leverage, citing her Fox News interview in multiple press releases. In the interview she also said shutdowns are harmful and that Democrats take that responsibility seriously. 6
Their side: The Washington Examiner reported that it asked Clark's office for comment and its article included no reply. 6
Clark was criticized from both directions over Gaza: she used the word genocide for Israel's conduct at an August 2025 town hall, and in her 2026 primary two challengers to her left made Gaza and pro-Israel campaign spending central issues. 1 7
Their side: Clark later said she was not accusing Israel of genocide. 1
The Commerce Department says growth beat forecasts, the last big economic report before Tuesday's midterms. Prices are still rising well above the Fed's target, so the number may not change how many voters feel.
File checked Nov. 13, 2026. Something wrong or out of date? Tell the desk.
