Zoe Lofgren
Zoe Lofgren is one of the most consequential and enduring figures in American democratic life — a Silicon Valley institution whose career in public service has spanned more than five decades, from a college intern on Capitol Hill to one of the most senior members of the United States Congress. She has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1995, representing the 18th District of California, which serves communities in Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.
Lofgren was born in San Mateo, California, on December 21, 1947. The daughter of a truck driver and a cafeteria cook and, later, a secretary, Zoe attended public schools and attended Stanford University on a California State Scholarship, graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1970. Prior to attending Stanford, Lofgren worked the night shift at the Eastman Kodak plant in Palo Alto to save money for non-tuition college expenses not covered by her scholarship. After Stanford, she attended Santa Clara University School of Law with the help of a scholarship, graduating cum laude in 1975.
Her connection to Congress began before she was even a lawyer. She served as a member of Congressman Don Edwards' staff for eight years in both his San Jose and Washington, D.C., offices from 1970 to 1978. Remarkably, she served on the House Judiciary Committee when the committee prepared articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1973 — the first of four impeachment proceedings she would be involved in over the course of her career, a record unmatched by any other member of Congress in American history.
After completing law school, Lofgren built her legal career in San José, practicing and teaching immigration law. She was first elected to the San Jose Evergreen Community College Board in 1979, and in 1980, she was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, where she served for 14 years. During her time on the Board of Supervisors, she chaired the committee studying BART's extension to the South Bay and spearheaded the Measure A and Measure B highway funding campaigns, which provided funding to improve key regional freeways and helped relieve traffic congestion across Santa Clara County.
Following Congressman Don Edwards' retirement in 1994 after 32 years in Congress, Zoe was elected to the House of Representatives — the only freshman Democrat elected from west of the Rocky Mountains that year. She has been reelected every two years since, now serving in her sixteenth term in the House. Her current district includes her home in San José and encompasses communities in Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties, including Salinas, downtown and East San José, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Watsonville, Hollister, and numerous other communities stretching down California's Central Coast.
Her record in Congress is remarkable in both its breadth and its historic significance. She is the only member of Congress to have been involved in all four modern impeachment proceedings — Nixon, Clinton, and both Trump impeachments — and was the first woman in U.S. history to address the Senate as an Impeachment Manager. She served as Chair of the House Administration Committee — often called the "Mayor of Capitol Hill" — and chaired the House Ethics Committee and the House Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee for many years.
On technology policy, she was the lead early opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and led a successful fight to stop the bill in the House Judiciary Committee, successfully fought to initiate the "e-rate" that provides affordable internet access for schools, libraries, and rural health centers, and led a bipartisan effort to decontrol encryption technology. She also introduced the sweeping 132-page Online Privacy Act, which creates user rights, places obligations on companies to protect users' data, and establishes a new federal agency to enforce privacy protections.
Today, Lofgren serves as the top Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and remains a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. She also serves as Chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation — the most diverse delegation in the House, outnumbering all other state delegations. She and her husband, John Marshall, have two children. Now in her late seventies and her fourth decade of elected office, Lofgren remains one of the most respected and battle-tested figures in American democratic governance — a lawmaker who has seen and shaped history at every turn.