Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier, known as Jackie Speier (born May 14, 1950), is the Democratic Representative for California's 12th congressional district. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County (formerly part of the district represented by her political mentor, Leo Ryan) and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.
She is also a former member of the California State Senate who represented parts of San Francisco and San...
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Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier, known as Jackie Speier (born May 14, 1950), is the Democratic Representative for California's 12th congressional district. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County (formerly part of the district represented by her political mentor, Leo Ryan) and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.
She is also a former member of the California State Senate who represented parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. On April 8, 2008, she won the special election for the vacated United States House of Representatives seat of late Congressman Tom Lantos.
Speier was born in 1950 in San Francisco and grew up in an apolitical, working-class family. Her mother, Nancy (née Kanchelian), was Armenian American, and her father, Fred Speier, was the son of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Speier took Jacqueline as her confirmation name after Jackie Kennedy. She is a graduate of Mercy High School in Burlingame. She earned a B.A. from the University...
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