Joe Neguse

Joe Neguse is an American attorney and politician who has represented Colorado's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since being first elected in 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, Neguse was born in Bakersfield, California, to Eritrean refugees and moved to Colorado at age six. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science in 2005, followed by a Juris Doctor in 2009. Prior to his congressional career, he co-founded the youth advocacy organization New Era Colorado, served on the University of Colorado Board of Regents from 2008 to 2015, and was the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. Neguse is the first Eritrean-American elected to the United States Congress and Colorado's first Black member of Congress. Currently serving as the Assistant House Democratic Leader, he has held various leadership roles, including Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. He gained national recognition as a House impeachment manager during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. His legislative focus includes environmental protection, specifically through the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act, as well as wildfire mitigation and government accountability efforts.

Neguse maintains positions centered on environmental sustainability, healthcare access, and social equity. He supports universal healthcare and is a member of the Medicare-for-All Caucus, while also advocating for the expansion of the Affordable Care Act and policies to reduce prescription drug prices. On environmental policy, he focuses on tackling climate change through the CORE Act and supporting the transition to clean energy. His economic platform emphasizes increasing the federal minimum wage, providing student loan debt relief, and implementing government ethics reforms like banning stock trading for members of Congress. Regarding safety and immigration, Neguse supports stricter gun control measures, including universal background checks, and advocates for a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and humanitarian protections for refugees.