Katherine Clark is running for the number two leadership post in the House Democratic caucus.
One day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top two lieutenants said they would step down as the top House Democrats, Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-Mass.) will announce Friday that she will run for the number two position in the caucus.
Clark’s move is part of Democrats’ desire to quickly establish a new set of leaders after having the same three members at the top — Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) — for 16 years.
Clark is running for the number two position, which Hoyer, who has served in leadership for 36 years, has held since 2003. Hoyer announced Thursday afternoon that he will not seek a leadership post in the next Congress, paving the way for Clark.
“I have the track record of bringing people and solutions together, and I have built trust across the caucus in different ideological corners, geographic parts of our caucus by listening and really knowing the issues that members care about where they need to be able to deliver for their districts,” Clark said in an interview.
Friday morning Clark will send a letter to her colleagues announcing her run.
In the letter, provided to The , she wrote that Democrats have “defied expectations” by winning a “historically close margin” in the House. “Now we must be tough, agile, and united to stop the Republican House Majority’s dangerous agenda and take back the House,” she wrote.
Clark would be the second woman, behind Pelosi, in history to serve in one of the top two positions of House leadership.
Clark’s entry into the race is yet another long-awaited move to transition the leadership to a new, younger class of lawmakers. Some Democrats have been calling on the top three to step aside for several Congresses. Only Pelosi made a commitment in 2018 and again in 2020 that this would be her last term.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is expected to officially announce Friday that he is running for Democratic leader and Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) is expected to announce he is running for the number three leadership post.
Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar have been waiting to take the reins and have positioned themselves among their colleagues as the next generation of Democratic leadership.
