Joseph D. Neguse ( ; born May 13, 1984) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the

U.S. representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

for

Colorado's 2nd congressional district Colorado's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. The district is located in the north-central part of the state, and encompasses the Front Range northwest of Denver metropolitan area, Denver, mai ...

since 2019. The district is based in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

and includes many of

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

's northwestern suburbs, as well as Fort Collins. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a regent of the University of Colorado from 2008 to 2015. Neguse is the first Eritrean-American elected to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

and Colorado's first black member of Congress. Neguse has served as House assistant Democratic leader since 2024.

Early life and education

Neguse's parents immigrated to the United States from

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. They met while living in

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

, where they married and had Joe and his younger sister. The family moved to Colorado when he was six years old. After living in

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

, Littleton, and

Highlands Ranch Highlands Ranch is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The p ...

, the family settled in

. Neguse graduated from ThunderRidge High School. He then graduated from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

, where he served as student body president, with a

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

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' in 2005 and then from the

University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies i ...

, with his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in 2009.

Earlier career

While he was a student, Neguse founded New Era Colorado, an organization to get young people involved in politics. He worked at the

Colorado State Capitol The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado, Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, and the Co ...

as an assistant to Andrew Romanoff when Romanoff was a member of the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distri ...

. In 2008 Neguse was elected to the Regents of the University of Colorado, representing , becoming the second African American in Colorado history to serve on the Board of Regents. Neguse ran for

Secretary of State of Colorado The secretary of state of Colorado is the secretary of state of the state of Colorado in the United States. The office is one of five elected constitutional offices in the state. The current secretary of state is Democrat Jena Griswold. St ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, losing to Wayne W. Williams, 47.5% to 44.9%. In June 2015,

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. ( ; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician, geologist, and businessman serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A mem ...

appointed Neguse the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), making him one of the youngest state cabinet officials in the country. At DORA, Neguse led an agency with roughly 600 employees and a $100 million budget charged with protecting consumers across the state by regulating the financial securities and insurance industries. In 2017, Neguse resigned from DORA to run in the 2018 elections for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in Colorado's 2nd congressional district, seeking to succeed

Jared Polis Jared Schutz Polis ( ; ; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the Unite ...

, who successfully ran for

governor of Colorado The governor of Colorado is the head of government of the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor (United States), governor is the head of the Executive (government), executive branch of Government of Colorado, Colorado's state government and is cha ...

. He also joined the law firm Snell & Wilmer, working in

administrative law Administrative law is a division of law governing the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law includes executive branch rulemaking (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regul ...

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018

On June 13, 2017, Neguse announced he would run for the Democratic nomination after incumbent U.S. Representative

announced he would not run for reelection and would run for

. In the June 26, 2018, Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district—Neguse faced businessman and former Boulder County Democratic Party chairman Mark Williams. Neguse defeated Williams with 65.7% of the vote, winning all 10 counties in the district. Neguse then defeated the Republican nominee, businessman Peter Yu, in the November 6 general election, receiving 60.2% of the vote, and winning all but two counties. Neguse became the first Black American to represent Colorado in the House.

2020

He was reelected in 2020 with 61.5% of the vote, defeating Republican Charles Winn.

2022

Neguse was reelected in 2022 with 70.7% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Marshall Dawson.

2024

Neguse was reelected in 2024 with 68.4% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee Marshall Dawson in a rematch.

Tenure

Shortly after his election to the House, Neguse was elected by his House colleagues to serve in House leadership as the Co-Freshman Representative. Neguse voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019. In 2020, he was named the most bipartisan member of the Colorado congressional delegation by the Lugar Center. In November 2020, Neguse's House colleagues unanimously elected him to serve as a co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, the number eight position in House Democratic leadership. In December 2022, he was elected chair, the fifth-highest position in the Democratic Party leadership. On January 12, 2021, Speaker Pelosi appointed Neguse as a House impeachment manager (prosecutor) for Trump's second impeachment trial, making him the youngest impeachment manager in U.S. history. During the trial, Neguse and his fellow House impeachment managers built their case by drawing connections between Trump's false claims of election fraud in the 2020 election and the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months afte ...

. In the end, the Senate voted to acquit Trump, but with seven Republican senators voting to convict, it was the most bipartisan impeachment trial in U.S. history. On March 20, 2024 Neguse was elected House assistant Democratic leader, succeeding

Jim Clyburn James Enos Clyburn (born July 21, 1940) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for . First elected in 1992, Clyburn is in his 17th term, representing a congressional district that includes most of the majority-black precinc ...

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress: * Committee on Natural Resources ** Subcommittee on Federal Lands (Ranking Member) ** Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries * Committee on Rules ** Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process * Committee on the Judiciary ** Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet ** Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust

Caucus memberships

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is made up of Black members of the United States Congress. Representative Yvette Clarke from New York, the current chairperson, succeeded Steven Horsford from Nevada in 2025. Although most members belong ...

* Pro-Choice Caucus * Congressional Progressive Caucus * House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force (vice chair) * Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus * Congressional Cannabis Caucus * Congressional Solar Caucus * Medicare for All Caucus * Congressional Coalition on Adoption * Rare Disease Caucus

Political positions

Congressional stock trading press conference

Neguse voted with President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

's stated position 100% of the time in the 117th Congress, according to a ''

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...

'' analysis.

Social issues

Neguse supported the Equality Act. He supports the

Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...

and has introduced legislation to allow people aged 16 and 17 to preregister to vote. He co-sponsored the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Neguse supports the national legalization of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

. Neguse supports universal background checks and believes there are limitations to the Second Amendment.

Climate change

Neguse has called

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

an "existential threat". He has introduced legislation to create an expansion of the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

to focus on forest management and wildfire mitigation. Neguse opposed the Trump administration's withdrawal from the

Paris Agreement The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...

. He supports the

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

. He supports efforts to increase

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

and federal incentives for renewable energy use. Neguse supports endangered wildlife protections, including sponsoring bills to support wildlife protections on the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwestern United States, Midwest and the American Sou ...

. He also wants to expand the size of Arapaho National Forest.

Economic issues

Neguse opposed the

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs ...

. He opposes increased military spending.

Healthcare

Neguse supports

Medicare for All Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare, in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from pr ...

and

universal health care Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized a ...

. He also supports mandatory coverage of preexisting conditions and opposes repealing the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. Neguse supports the national expansion of COVID-19 testing and voted in support of stimulus funding related to the pandemic. He opposed the Trump administration's decision to leave the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

during the pandemic.

Voting rights

Neguse supports national mail-in voting. He also supports the

Immigration and criminal justice

The son of immigrants, Neguse supports immigration reform and serves as the vice chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. He supports a pathway for citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and the

DREAM Act The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, is a United States legislative proposal that would grant temporary conditional residency, with the right to work, for illegal immigrants who entered the Unite ...

. He supports

police reform Criminal justice reform is the reform of criminal justice systems. Stated reasons for criminal justice reform include reducing crime statistics, racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, under-reporting, and ...

Stock trading prohibition by Members of Congress

Neguse supports a prohibition on members of Congress trading in stocks.

Electoral history

Personal life

Neguse is married to Andrea Jimenez Rael. They met in Boulder County. Their daughter was born in August 2018 and their son in May 2023. They live in Lafayette, east of Boulder.

References

External links

Congressman Joe Neguse
official U.S. House website
Joe Neguse for Congress
* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Neguse, Joe 1984 births 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century Colorado politicians African-American members of the United States House of Representatives American people of Eritrean descent Colorado Democrats Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Colorado Living people Politicians from Bakersfield, California Politicians from Boulder, Colorado University of Colorado Law School alumni University of Colorado regents 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives