Lori Trahan | |
|---|---|
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Niki Tsongas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lori Ann Loureiro October 27, 1973 Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | David Trahan |
| Children | 5 |
| Education | Georgetown University (BS) |
| Website | House website |
Lori Ann Loureiro Trahan (/trəˈhæn/ trə-HANN; born October 27, 1973) is an American businesswoman and politician who serves as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, having been elected in November 2018.[1] The district covers the Northwestern suburbs of Boston and includes Lowell, Lawrence, Concord, and her hometown of Westford. A Democrat, she previously served as chief of staff to former Representative Marty Meehan in Massachusetts's 5th congressional district.
Trahan was born on October 27, 1973 and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts.[2] She grew up with three sisters. Trahan attended Lowell High School, where she would later be inducted into the school's Sports Hall of Fame. Trahan described her family as "living paycheck to paycheck".[3] Her father, Tony Loureiro, had Portuguese parents. His father was from Porto in northern Portugal, and his mother was born in Brazil to Portuguese parents and moved to the Azores to live with relatives as a child following her mother's death. Trahan's mother is of partial Portuguese ancestry (from the Azores).[4]
At Lowell High, she earned an athletic scholarship in volleyball to Georgetown University.[5] She graduated from Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service with a bachelor's degree in comparative and regional studies in International Relations.[6][7]
After college, Trahan worked for Marty Meehan, member of the United States House of Representatives for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district, eventually becoming his chief of staff. In 2005, Trahan left the public sector to work for ChoiceStream, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based marketing software company. She became the CEO of the Concire Leadership Institute, a small, woman-owned consulting firm.[6]
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See also: 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts § District 3 |
In October 2017, Trahan announced her candidacy for the November 2018 election for the House to succeed retiring Representative Niki Tsongas.[8] 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, after narrowly defeating Daniel Koh, the former Chief of Staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, in a field of 10 candidates.[9] The victory was upheld following a recount.[10] In the November general election, Trahan defeated her Republican challenger, Rick Green, garnering 62% of the vote.[11]
On March 4, 2019, The Boston Globe published an analysis of contributions to Trahan's campaign in the weeks before the 3rd congressional district's primary where she beat Daniel Koh by less than 150 votes. In the last days before the primary, Trahan put hundreds of thousands of dollars into TV advertising and the Globe asked the question about the source of the money. Trahan offered an explanation to the Globe, claiming 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 campaign loan.[12]
On December 17, 2019, the United States House Committee on Ethics launched a continuing investigation of Trahan after congressional investigators found "substantial reason to believe" that she violated campaign finance laws in her election win in 2018.[13] The Ethics Committee voted unanimously to dismiss the inquiry on July 15, 2020, saying in their final report that they "did not find that Representative Trahan acted in violation of House Rules, laws, regulations, or other standards of conduct."[14]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Lori Trahan | 18,527 | 21.6 | |
| Democratic | Daniel Koh | 18,405 | 21.5 | |
| Democratic | Barbara L'Italien | 13,029 | 15.2 | |
| Democratic | Juana Matias | 12,982 | 15.1 | |
| Democratic | Rufus Gifford | 12,856 | 15.1 | |
| Democratic | Alexandra Chandler | 4,848 | 5.7 | |
| Democratic | Beej Das | 1,496 | 1.7 | |
| Democratic | Jeffrey Ballinger | 1,388 | 1.6 | |
| Democratic | Bopha Malone | 1,344 | 1.6 | |
| Democratic | Leonard Golder | 585 | 0.7 | |
| Democratic | write-ins | 131 | 0.2 | |
| Democratic | Blanks | 3,227 | ||
| Total votes | 88,818 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Lori Trahan | 173,175 | 62.0 | |
| Republican | Rick Green | 93,445 | 33.4 | |
| Independent | Mike Mullen | 12,572 | 4.5 | |
| N/A | Write-ins | 135 | 0.1 | |
| Total votes | 279,327 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratic hold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Lori Trahan | 286,896 | 97.7 | |
| N/A | Write-ins | 6,643 | 2.7 | |
| Total votes | 293,539 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratic hold | ||||
In April 2019, Trahan supported the candidacy of the senior Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren.[17]
In an April 2019 interview with WBZ-TV, Trahan told the political commentator Jon Keller that she does not support the impeachment of President Trump, but said Congress should continue investigating the president.[17] In December 2019, however, after the revelation that president Trump had spoken to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating his rival Joe Biden, Trahan told The Salem News that she supported impeaching the president, saying Trump's abuses in office a "clear and present danger" that required action.[18] On December 19, 2019, Trahan voted to impeach on both articles of impeachment against Trump.[19]
On October 1, 2020, Trahan co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemning Azerbaijan’s offensive operations against the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and denounced Turkey’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, 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."[20]
On March 28th, 2019, Trahan voted to protect transgender troops from the Trump Administration's ban on transgender individuals right to serve in the military. [21]
On February 7th, 2019, Trahan became an original cosponsor of the Green New Deal. [22]
Trahan lives in Westford, Massachusetts, with her two daughters,[23] three stepsons,[23] and husband Dave.[8]
