Speier, Jackie, 1950-

Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier (born May 14, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as the U.S. Representative for California's 14th congressional district since 2008. Her district was numbered as the 12th District from 2008 to 2013.

Born in San Francisco, California and raised in Burlingame, she graduated from Mercy High School in Burlingame before earning a B.A. degree from the University of California, Davis, and a J.D. degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers. While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with other team members after Peoples Temple followers ambushed the investigative team, killing Congressman Ryan and four others, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived. Speier lost the Democratic primary for the special election to succeed Ryan. Speier won her first election in 1980, when she ran for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and defeated a 20-year incumbent. At the time, she was the youngest person ever elected to the board. She was reelected in 1984, and was later selected as chairwoman. Midway through her second term on the Board of Supervisors, Speier ran for the California State Assembly from a district in northern San Mateo County.

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