Lori Ann Trahan ( ; Loureiro; born October 27, 1973) is an American businesswoman and politician serving as the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

for since 2019. The district covers

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

's northwestern suburbs, and includes Lowell,

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

, and Trahan's hometown, Westford. A Democrat, she formerly served as chief of staff to Representative

Marty Meehan Martin Thomas Meehan (born December 30, 1956) is an American academic administrator, politician, and attorney. Since July 2015, Meehan has served as the President of the University of Massachusetts after serving as Chancellor of the University of ...

Massachusetts's 5th congressional district Massachusetts's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in eastern Massachusetts. The district is represented by Katherine Clark. Massachusetts congressional redistricting after the 2010 census has changed the borders of the distr ...

Early life and education

Trahan was born on October 27, 1973, and raised in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

. She grew up with three sisters. Trahan attended Lowell High School, into whose Sports Hall of Fame she was later inducted. Trahan has said her family lived "paycheck to paycheck". Her father, Tony Loureiro, had

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

parents. His father was from

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, and his mother was born in Brazil to Portuguese parents and moved to the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

to live with relatives as a child after her mother's death. Trahan's mother is also of partial Portuguese ancestry (from the Azores). At Lowell High, Trahan earned an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. She graduated from Georgetown's

Walsh School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at both ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in comparative and regional studies in international relations.

Earlier career

After college, Trahan worked for

, the U.S. Representative for

, eventually becoming his chief of staff. In 2005, she left the public sector to work for ChoiceStream, a

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

-based marketing software company. She became the CEO of the Concire Leadership Institute, a small, woman-owned consulting firm.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018

In October 2017, Trahan announced her candidacy for the 2018 election to succeed retiring U.S. Representative Niki Tsongas. Tsongas had succeeded Trahan's former boss, Meehan, in a 2007 special election (the district was renumbered as the 3rd district after the 2010 census). In September 2018, Trahan won the Democratic primary election, the real contest in this heavily Democratic district, narrowly defeating Daniel Koh, the former chief of staff to

Boston Mayor The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four-y ...

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

, in a field of 10 candidates. The victory was upheld after a

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

. In the November general election, Trahan defeated the Republican nominee, Rick Green, with 62% of the vote.

2020

Trahan was reelected with 97% of the vote in 2020, running unopposed.

Tenure

Campaign finance investigation

On March 4, 2019, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' published an analysis of contributions to Trahan's campaign in the weeks before the 3rd congressional district's 2018 Democratic primary. In the last days before the primary, Trahan put hundreds of thousands of dollars into TV advertising, and the ''Globe'' investigated the source of the money. Trahan told the ''Globe'' she used $371,000 in personal funds, but federal financial disclosures she filed in the late summer of 2018 appeared to show that she did not have the funds to cover such a loan. On December 17, 2019, the

United States House Committee on Ethics The Committee on Ethics, often known simply as the Ethics Committee, is one of the committees of the United States House of Representatives. Prior to the 112th Congress it was known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The House ...

launched a continuing investigation of Trahan after congressional investigators found "substantial reason to believe" that she violated

campaign finance laws Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political ac ...

in her 2018 campaign. The Ethics Committee voted unanimously to dismiss the inquiry on July 15, 2020, saying in its final report that it "did not find that Representative Trahan acted in violation of House Rules, laws, regulations, or other standards of conduct."

Committee assignments

* Committee on Armed Services ** Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities ** Subcommittee on Military Personnel * Committee on Education and Labor ** Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions ** Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment

Caucus memberships

Congressional Hispanic Caucus The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is an organization of 38 Democratic members of the United States Congress of Hispanic and Latino descent. The Caucus focuses on issues affecting Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The CHC was fou ...

Congressional Progressive Caucus The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a congressional caucus affiliated with the Democratic Party in the United States Congress. The CPC represents the most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party. " e Congressional Progressive Cau ...

New Democrat Coalition The New Democrat Coalition is a caucus in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress made up of Democrats, primarily centrists, who take a pro-business stance and a moderate-to-conservative approach to fiscal matters. As of ...

Electoral history

Political positions

In April 2019, Trahan supported the presidential candidacy of Senator

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

. In an April 2019 interview, Trahan said she did not support the impeachment of President Trump, but that Congress should continue investigating Trump. In December 2019, after the revelation that Trump had spoken to Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

about investigating his rival Joe Biden, Trahan told ''

The Salem News ''The Salem News'' (formerly the ''Salem Evening News'') is an American daily newspaper serving southern Essex County, Massachusetts. Although the paper is named for the city of Salem, its offices are now in nearby Danvers, Massachusetts. The ne ...

'' that she supported impeaching the president, calling Trump's abuses in office a "clear and present danger" that required action. On December 19, 2019, Trahan voted for both articles of impeachment against Trump. On October 1, 2020, Trahan co-signed a letter to Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served under President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United State ...

condemning

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

’s offensive operations against the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

-populated enclave of

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...

and denounced

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

’s role in the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...

, and criticized "false equivalence between Armenia and Azerbaijan, even as the latter threatens war and refuses to agree to monitoring along the line of contact." On March 28, 2019, Trahan voted to protect

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

troops from the Trump Administration's ban on transgender people serving in the military. On February 7, 2019, Trahan became an original cosponsor of the

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

. In October 2022, Trahan introduced the Stop Online Suicide Assistance Forums Act, a bill that would make it a crime to use "the mail or interstate communication to intentionally assist another individual in taking that individual's own life". The bill was a

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

effort that included Representatives Chris Stewart, Mike Carey and

Katie Porter Katherine Moore Porter (born January 3, 1974) is an American politician, law professor, and lawyer who is the U.S. representative from California's 45th congressional district since 2019. She is the first Democrat to be elected to represent the ...

. In January 2023, Trahan was one of 13 cosponsors of an amendment to the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

extending the right to vote to citizens sixteen years of age or older.

Syria

In 2023, Trahan was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.

Personal life

Trahan lives in

Westford, Massachusetts Westford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was at 24,643 at the time of the 2020 Census. History Westford began as 'West Chelmsford', a village in the town of Chelmsford. The village of West Chelmsfor ...

, with her two daughters, three stepsons, and husband Dave. She is

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

.Religious affiliation of members of 118th Congress
PEW Research. Retrieved March 8, 2023

References

External links

Congresswoman Lori Trahan
official U.S. House website
Lori Trahan for Congress
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Trahan, Lori 1973 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American people of Azorean descent American politicians of Brazilian descent American Roman Catholics Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts Female members of the United States House of Representatives Catholics from Massachusetts Catholic politicians from Massachusetts Georgetown Hoyas women's volleyball players Living people Politicians from Lowell, Massachusetts People from Westford, Massachusetts Political chiefs of staff United States congressional aides Women in Massachusetts politics