Jared Huffman is the Democratic incumbent for California's 2nd District, an environmental attorney who served on the Marin Municipal Water District board and in the California State Assembly before his 2012 election to Congress. He is the Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee. His stated 2026 priorities are affordability, accountability and democracy.[1][2][3]
Huffman was born on February 18, 1964, in Independence, Missouri, and graduated from William Chrisman High School in 1982.[3] He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1986, where he was a three-time NCAA All-American volleyball player, and played for the USA Volleyball Team in 1987. He then graduated from Boston College Law School.[1][2][3] He worked as an associate attorney at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen and as a managing partner at Boyd, Huffman & Williams and The Legal Solutions Group, LLP, winning several major jury verdicts in gender and race discrimination trials. From 2001 to 2006 he was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he helped forge an agreement to restore a 153-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River.[1][2]
Huffman was elected to the Marin Municipal Water District board in 1994 and served 12 years, until 2006, including three terms as board president.[2][3] He then represented the North Bay in the California State Assembly from 2006 to 2012, where he chaired the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and the Assembly Environmental Caucus and played a leading role in crafting the state's 2009 water reforms. Term limits barred him from a fourth term.[1][2][3] His state legislation included California's lighting efficiency standards (AB 1109) and the creation of California Benefit Corporations (AB 361).[2]
Huffman entered the 2012 race for California's 2nd District after 20-year incumbent Lynn Woolsey announced her retirement. He won with more than 70 percent of the vote, took office on January 3, 2013, and has been re-elected since. The district runs along the North Coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.[1][2][3] In the 119th Congress he is Ranking Member of the Committee on Natural Resources, to which House Democrats elected him in 2025, and he also serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.[1][2] He co-founded the Congressional Freethought Caucus with Rep. Jamie Raskin in 2018 and serves as its co-chair, and he is a vice-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His official biography highlights his first bill, which expanded the California Coastal National Monument to include the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands.[1][2][3] Huffman lives in San Rafael with his wife, Susan, a teacher, and their two children.[2][3]
- 1.Jared Huffman · Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey · 2026-09-25 Candidate's own words
- 2.Meet Jared · Office of Rep. Jared Huffman, U.S. House of Representatives Official record
- 3.Jared Huffman · Wikipedia · 2026-10-21 Reference
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.
