Jared Huffman

Jared Huffman

: Photo from Wikimedia Commons / Author of Photo: United States Congress

Overview

* Was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012
* Member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
* Boycotted President-elect Trump’s inauguration in 2017


Jared Huffman was born on February 18, 1964, in Independence, Missouri. He earned a BA in political science from UC Santa Barbara in 1986, and a JD from Boston College Law School in 1990. In 1988 Huffman volunteered for Democrat Senator Paul Simon’s presidential campaign, and three years later he was a member of the Northern California steering committee for Barbara Boxer‘s U.S. Senate bid. Professionally, Huffman was an associate attorney and/or managing partner with three law firms between 1990 and 2001, and was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council from 2001-06. After subsequently serving six years in the California State Assembly, Huffman was elected in November 2012 to represent California’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He continues to hold this seat and is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Huffman believes that:

  • all women should have an unrestricted right to abortion-on-demand at any stage of pregnancy – subsidized by taxpayers, in cases of economic hardship;
  • public and private employers alike should be legally required to implement affirmative-action hiring and promotion policies that give preference to African Americans and women, as compensation for historical injustices;
  • the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is an excellent statute that can serve a strategic stepping stone toward the eventual implementation of a government-run, single-payer healthcare system;
  • voucher programs designed to enable low-income parents to send their children to private schools rather than to failing public schools, constitute bad policy because they rob the public schools of vital resources;
  • more guns in the hands of private citizens inevitably result in higher levels of crime, thus the availability of firearms should be restricted by whatever means are effective;
  • wealthy people should be required to pay much higher tax rates than those who earn less;
  • U.S. defense spending should be scaled back dramatically;
  • voter ID laws are, by and large, racially motivated attempts to suppress minority voting and should be eliminated; and
  • an ever-increasing reliance on “green energy” sources such as wind and solar should be put in place, along with the phasing out of fossil fuels, the imposition of carbon taxes, and the raising of vehicle CAFE standards.

Huffman supported President Barack Obama‘s executive amnesty orders — i.e., “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (2012) and “Deferred Action for Parental Accountability” (2014) — which together shielded millions of illegals from potential deportation.

On March 3, 2015, Huffman attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress regarding the gravity of the growing Iranian nuclear threat and his (Netanyahu’s) strong opposition to the nuclear deal that the Obama Administration was pursuing with Iran. In the course of his address, the prime minister repeatedly exhorted the U.S. to push for “a better deal that keeps the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in place until Iran’s aggression ends.” But Huffman subsequently told reporters, inaccurately, that Netanyahu’s position was that “we should give up on any diplomatic path.”

Huffman was one of dozens of Congressional Democrats who elected to boycott the January 20, 2017 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. To view a complete list of those who chose to boycott the event, click here.

Huffman was outraged when Hugo Mejia, an illegal alien from Mexico residing in Marin County, California, was detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials when he reported to his construction job one morning in May 2015. The congressman subsequently led a local rally in support of Mejia, calling him “the kind of person that Trump assured us he would not summarily deport — a law-abiding, tax-paying upstanding family man.”

Amid growing calls by Democrats for the removal of Confederate symbols from public places across the United States, Huffman in July 2015 proposed a ban on even privately placed Confederate flags at Confederate grave sites in national cemeteries.

In August 2017, Huffman and fellow Congressional Democrat Barbara Lee introduced two amendments designed to ensure that, as a Huffman press release put it, “American taxpayers are no longer forced to pay the salaries of two of Donald Trump’s political appointees, Sebastian Gorka and Stephen Miller, whose work has emboldened white nationalists and sowed division, bigotry, and hate.” Added Huffman: “[I]t’s clear that this President does not have the moral authority that we saw in his predecessors. Congress must act to show that we will not stand for this type of hateful ideology influencing the most important office in our nation.”

Huffman was angered by the partial government shutdown which was initiated on December 22, 2018, when President Trump refused to sign a spending bill because it failed to include funds for the construction of a physical barrier along America’s southern border. On January 8, 2019, Huffman and fellow California Democrat Jackie Speier, in an effort to highlight the fact that the shutdown had temporarily cut off funding for the National Park Service (NPS), carried bins labeled “Trump Trash” — containing garbage they had collected from local parks run by NPS — to the front gates of the White House. After Speier said “We’re doing a stunt to equal President Trump’s [government shutdown] stunt,” Huffman stated: “I’ll tell you what’s not a stunt. It’s the diapers and the coffee cups and the burrito wrappers and the trash that’s piling up in Park Service facilities all over this country because of what President Trump has done. His actions have real-world consequences.”

In October 2018, Huffman said that Cesar Sayoc Jr., a white male Trump supporter suspected of mailing explosive devices to a number of high-profile Democrats, was “right out of central casting from a Trump rally.” Asserting that Trump “inspires” bombs with his “bombast,” Huffman called on the president to “stop fueling toxic hate, anger and violence!”

For an overview of Huffman’s voting record on a variety of key issues, click here.

Further Reading: “Jared Huffman” (Ballotpedia.org, Votesmart.org); Jared Huffman’s Positions on Key Issues (OnTheIssues.org); “[Huffman Leads] Rally in support of Hugo Mejia on May 15, Immigrants Day” (MarinResists.org, 5-13-2017); “Reps. Huffman and Lee Introduce New Amendments: No Taxpayer Funding for White Nationalist Enablers in the White House” (8-25-2017); “Two Democratic Lawmakers Plan to Deliver National Park Service Trash to White House” (USA Today, 1-8-2019); “Dem Congressman: ‘Bombing Suspect Cesar Sayoc ‘Right out of Central Casting from a Trump Rally’” (Daily Caller, 10-26-2018).

Additional Resources:


Jared Huffman’s Voting Record

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