The Second-Most Powerful Woman in Congress Is Also One of Its Most Low-Key Members
Katherine Clark has a rare knack for old-fashioned coalition-building. Perhaps this is the year she gets her due.
Congress is finally back in session, and Katherine Clark is already drawing up plans: plans to advance her bill to combat workplace sexual harassment; plans to pressure the Senate into working on gun safety reform; plans to make a concerted push for an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
If that seems like an ambitious agenda, the Massachusetts Democrat, who currently sits as the second-most powerful woman in the House of Representatives, has shown a rare knack for good old-fashioned coalition-building — and she’s been able to keep her ideological integrity without alienating her more moderate party cohort.
Yet, despite her pedigree, Clark receives relatively scant media attention. Perhaps that’s because she rarely seeks the spotlight, preferring to work behind the scenes for her party. (It was the rare occasion when she did take a public stand, when she led a sit-in to protest Republicans’ obfuscation of gun safety reform laws in 2016, that helped Clark catch her party leadership’s attention.)
