Clark, Katherine, 1963-

Katherine Marlea Clark (born July 17, 1963) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district since 2013.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, she attended St. Lawrence University, Cornell Law School, and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In her early career, she worked as an attorney in Chicago. She then moved to Colorado, where she worked as a clerk for Judge Alfred A. Arraj of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado and later as a staff attorney for the Colorado District Attorneys' Council. She moved to Massachusetts in 1995 and became general counsel for the state Office of Child Care Services. In 2001, Clark moved to Melrose, where she was elected to the Melrose School Committee, taking her seat in January 2002. She first ran for the Massachusetts Senate in 2004 and lost to Republican incumbent Richard Tisei. In January 2005, she was unanimously elected chairwoman of the Melrose School Committee. Clark was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2008 and the Massachusetts Senate three years later.

After Representative Ed Markey's election to the U.S. Senate in 2013, Clark entered the race to succeed him. Clark is a vocal advocate for ending wage discrimination, protecting women’s health care, access to affordable, high-quality child care, paid family leave, safer schools, and other reforms to address the challenges women and families face. She believes that Congress must work to end the glaring disconnect between the needs of families at home and priorities in Washington. Clark has introduced legislation in response to Internet harassment, most notably resulting from the Gamergate controversy, and has advocated for more stringent enforcement of existing laws. In 2018, she defeated California congressman Pete Aguilar to succeed Linda Sánchez as Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus; in 2020, Clark defeated Rhode Island congressman David Cicilline by a vote of 135 to 92 to succeed Ben Ray Luján as Assistant Speaker, the number four spot in Democratic house leadership.