Jackie Speier served 18 years in the California State Legislature before she was sworn into Congress on April 10, 2024 to fill the unexpired term of the late Congressman Tom Lantos. She was reelected to Congress in 2012 with more than 78% of the vote.
Jackie, born in San Francisco’s Sunset District, is a life-long resident of the Bay Area. She attended public schools in South San Francisco and Burlingame’s Mercy High School. While studying at University of California, Davis, she interned for State Assemblyman Leo J. Ryan in his Sacramento office. After graduating, she joined Ryan’s Washington, DC staff upon his election to Congress. She returned to San Francisco to earn a JD degree from UC’s Hastings College of the Law before rejoining Congressman Ryan as his legal advisor.
In November, 1978 Jackie and the Congressman led a group to Jonestown, Guyana to investigate claims that constituents were being held against their will by the Rev. Jim Jones. Speier and Congressman Ryan were escorting defecting cult members to their plane when Jones’ gunmen attacked them. Ryan and four others were killed-Jackie was shot five times and left for dead.
This near-death experience has followed Jackie closely throughout her life and helped shaped her vow: “not to waste another minute of my life.” She has authored more than 300 state laws supported by Democratic and Republican Governors. Her four-year crusade to protect consumers’ financial privacy from the invasive practices of banking and insurance companies led to the California Financial Privacy Act, hailed by Consumers Union as “The strongest financial privacy legislation in the nation.” She also led hearings that identified waste, abuse and corruption within California’s prison system.
Fortunately, Jackie sits on two crucial committees in Congress: the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). She is also a member of her party’s leadership team as Senior Whip where she promotes policies that will create jobs and strengthen the middle class.
In January of 2013, Jackie was appointed to serve as Vice-Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion struck a San Bruno neighborhood, killing eight and destroying 38 homes, Jackie took a lead role in helping to determine what caused the accident and who was responsible along with ensuring that affected residents were made whole. Her work on this pipeline issue continues today as she advocates for stronger safety laws, improved regulation by the CPUC and higher accountability from PG&E which has adopted all of her safety recommendations.
Jackie has taken a lead role in helping veterans with service-connected injuries. When she first met with the Oakland VA director in March 2012, there were 34,000 disability claims that had gone at least 125 days without a decision-many of these veterans had been waiting more than two years. In the next six months, hundreds of veterans who came to Jackie for help had their claims acted on and, in fact, nearly $2 million has been paid to veterans who asked Jackie to intervene with the VA on their behalf.
In 2012 Newsweek named Jackie to its list of 150 “Fearless Women” in the world. She has been recognized for her relentless effort to end the epidemic of military sexual assaults that make it more than likely that woman in uniform will be raped than killed by the enemy. She has introduced a bill supported by 131 members of the House of Representatives that revamps our military justice system that favors perpetrators over victims.
She is also co-author of a popular self-help book for women, This Is Not the Life I Ordered.
When asked for her philosophy of life, Jackie often quotes Winston Churchill: “Success is never final and failure is never fatal.”
Jackie is married to Barry Dennis and has a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Stephanie.