Jamie Raskin

Jamie Raskin
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 8th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2017
Preceded by Chris Van Hollen
Member of the Maryland Senate
from the 20th district
In office
January 10, 2007 – November 10, 2016
Preceded by Ida G. Ruben
Succeeded by Will Smith
Personal details
Born Jamin Ben Raskin
(1962-12-13) December 13, 1962
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Sarah Bloom
Relatives Marcus Raskin (Father)
Education Harvard University (BA, JD)
Website House website

Jamin Ben "Jamie" Raskin (born December 13, 1962) is an American author and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Maryland's 8th congressional district since 2017. The district is anchored in Montgomery County, an affluent suburban county northwest of Washington, D.C..

As a law professor, he taught constitutional law and legislation at the American University and the Washington College of Law. He served as the director of the college's LL.M. program on Law and Government until his election to Congress.

Early life

Raskin was born in Washington, D.C. on December 13, 1962[1] to a Jewish family,[2][3] the son of progressive activist Marcus Raskin, a former staff aide to President John F. Kennedy on the National Security Council and co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies, and Barbara (née Bellman) Raskin, a journalist and novelist. He graduated from Georgetown Day School in 1979, received his B.A. degree from Harvard College (magna cum laude) in 1983, and received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude) in 1987. He is a past editor of the Harvard Law Review.[4]

Maryland legislature

In November 2006, he was elected as a Maryland State Senator for District 20,[5] representing parts of Silver Spring and Takoma Park in Montgomery County. In 2012 he was named the Majority Whip for the Senate, and was the Chairman of the Montgomery County Senate Delegation, Chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics Reform, and a Member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee.[2]

Raskin was a strong proponent of liberal issues in the Maryland Senate. He has been the sponsor of bills advocating same-sex marriage, the repeal of the death penalty in Maryland, the expansion of the state Ignition interlock device program, and the establishment of the legal guidelines for Benefit Corporations, a corporate form for-profit entities that wish to consider a material societal benefit in their bylaws and decision making process.[6][7][8][9]

A former board member of FairVote, Raskin introduced and sponsored the first bill in the country for the National Popular Vote, a plan for an interstate compact to provide for the first popular presidential election in American history.[10]

On March 1, 2006, during a Maryland State Senate hearing regarding same-sex marriage, Raskin, speaking as a constitutional law expert, told a lawmaker, "People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution; they don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."[11][12][13]

Raskin also introduced Senate legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland in 2014. The bill was signed by Martin O'Malley and went into effect in January 2015.[14]

U.S. House of Representatives

Raskin speaking at the 2017 Tax March

2016 campaign

The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post reported that Raskin announced his campaign on April 19, 2015, stating that, "[m]y ambition is not to be in the political center, it is to be in the moral center." The district's seven-term incumbent, fellow Democrat Chris Van Hollen, gave up the seat to make an ultimately successful run for the United States Senate.[15][16]

Raskin won the crowded seven-way Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district—with 33 percent of the vote.[17] The primary election was the most expensive House race in 2016.[18] He won the general election, defeating Republican Dan Cox with 60 percent of the vote.[19]

Tenure

In his first action as a Congressman, Raskin, with several other members of House of Representatives, objected to certifying the election of Donald Trump as President because of Russian interference in the election and voter suppression efforts. Vice President Joseph Biden ruled the objection out of order because it had to be sponsored by at least one member of each chamber, and there was no Senate sponsor.[20]

In late June 2017 Raskin was the chief sponsor of legislation to establish a congressional "oversight" commission with the authority to declare a President "incapacitated" and removed from office under the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.[21]

In April 2018, Raskin, together with Jared Huffman, Jerry McNerney, and Dan Kildee, launched the Congressional Freethought Caucus. Its stated goals include "pushing public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values", promoting the "separation of church and state," opposing discrimination against "atheists, agnostics, humanists, seekers, religious and nonreligious persons", among others. Huffman and Raskin will act as co-chairs.[22]

Committee assignments

Party leadership and caucus membership

Electoral history

Democratic primary, Congress, Maryland 8th district, 2016[17]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Jamie Raskin 43,776 33.6%
Democratic David Trone 35,400 27.1%
Democratic Kathleen Matthews 31,186 23.9%
Democratic Ana Sol Gutierrez 7,185 5.5%
Democratic William Jawando 6,058 4.6%
Democratic Kumar P. Barve 3,149 2.%
Democratic David M. Anderson 1,511 1.2%
Democratic Joel Rubin 1,426 1.1%
Democratic Dan Bolling 712 0.5%
Majority 8,376 6.5%
Total votes 130,403 100.0%
Congress, Maryland 8th district, 2016[19]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jamie Raskin 220,657 60.6% -0.3
Republican Dan Cox 124,651 34.2% -5.5
Green Nancy Wallace 11,201 3.1% +3.1
Libertarian Jasen Wunder 7,283 2.0% +2.0
Write-ins 532 0.1% -0.1
Majority 96,006 26.4% +4.7
Total votes 364,324 100.0%
Democratic primary, Congress, Maryland 8th district, 2018
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Jamie Raskin* 74,303 90.5%
Democratic Summer Spring 4,759 5.80%
Democratic Utam Paul 3,032 3.70%
Majority 69,544 84.70%
Total votes 82,094 100.0%
Congress, Maryland 8th district, 2018
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Jamie Raskin*
Republican John Walsh
Write-ins
Majority
Total votes 100.0%

Personal life

Raskin is married to Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation from 2007–2010, and was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Federal Reserve Board on April 28, 2010.[27] On October 4, 2010, she was sworn in as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.[28] She served as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from March 19, 2014 – January 20, 2017.[29] Raskin has been vegetarian since 2009.[30]

Publications

Raskin is the author of We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and about Students,[31] and Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People,[32] Raskin, Maryam Ahranjani, and Andrew G. Ferguson co-authored Youth Justice in America.[33] In 1994, Raskin and John Bonifaz coauthored The Wealth Primary: Campaign Fundraising and the Constitution[34]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Friends of Jamin Raskin (2006). "Biography". Jamie Raskin for State Senate campaign. Archived from the original on August 27, 2006. Retrieved May 4, 2006.
  2. 1 2 "Jamin B. (Jamie) Raskin". Maryland Manual Online. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  3. ↑ Rachel Levmore (May 2, 2012). "Should the Government 'Get' Involved? - State Laws Target Men Who Refuse to Grant Religious Divorce", The Forward
  4. ↑ Editorial Board listing in "Front Matter." Harvard Law Review, vol. 100, no. 1, 1986, p. 99.
  5. ↑ "Official 2006 Gubernatorial General Election results for State Senator". Maryland State Board of Elections. 2006. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  6. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (January 25, 2008). "Senate Bill 290 (2008)". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  7. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (January 18, 2013). "Senate Bill 276 (2013)". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (January 25, 2008). "Senate Bill 803 (2011)". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  9. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (February 10, 2010). "Senate Bill 690 (2010)". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  10. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (February 2, 2007). "Senate Bill 634 (2007)" (PDF). Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Sun News Digest". The Baltimore Sun. March 2, 2006. p. 2A. Abstract of archived news article, provided by the newspaper's archiving service.
  12. ↑ "Emotions flare over same-sex marriage". The Baltimore Sun. March 2, 2006. Archived from the original on June 17, 2006. Retrieved April 17, 2006. Archived on raskin06.com, Mr Raskin's political campaign web site.
  13. ↑ Urban Legends Reference Pages (March 28, 2006). "Jamie Raskin". Snopes. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  14. ↑ Raskin, Jamie; et al. (January 31, 2014). "Senate Bill 924 (2007)". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  15. ↑ Fritze, John (April 19, 2015), Raskin Announces Bid for Congress .
  16. ↑ Turque, Bill (April 19, 2015), State Sen. Jamie Raskin announces run for Van Hollen seat
  17. 1 2 Elections, Maryland State Board of. "2016 Election Results".
  18. ↑ Bill Turque, "Raskin wins Md.'s 8th Congressional District primary", Washington Post, April 27, 2016.
  19. 1 2 Elections, Maryland State Board of. "Unofficial 2016 Presidential General Election Results". Retrieved July 13, 2017.
  20. ↑ "'It is over': Biden quiets Democrats as Congress meets to make Trump victory official". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  21. ↑ Isikoff, Michael (June 30, 2017). "Bill to create panel that could remove Trump from office quietly picks up Democratic support". Yahoo! News. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  22. ↑ Manchester, Julia. "Dem lawmakers launch 'Freethought' congressional caucus". The Hill. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  23. ↑ "Caucus Members". Congressional Progressive Caucus. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  24. ↑ "Members". House Baltic Caucus. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  25. ↑ "Members". Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  26. ↑ "Members". Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  27. ↑ Reddy, Sudeep (April 29, 2010), "Obama Nominates Yellen, Raskin, Diamond to Fed Board", The Wall Street Journal
  28. ↑ Fed Press Release federalreserve.gov, October 4, 2010 (October 9, 2010)
  29. ↑ "Sarah Bloom Raskin profile". U.S. Treasury Department. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  30. ↑ Harless, Kailey (August 4, 2009), Why I Went Veg with Maryland's Jamie Raskin
  31. ↑ Raskin, Jamie B. (July 1, 2014), We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and about Students (Fourth ed.), CQ Press, ISBN 978-1-4833-1919-3
  32. ↑ Raskin, Jamin B. (February 14, 2003), Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus The American People, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415934398
  33. ↑ Raskin, Jamin B.; Ahranjani, Maryam; Ferguson, Andrew G. (July 28, 2014), Youth Justice in America (Second ed.), CQ Press, ISBN 978-1483319162 .
  34. ↑ Raskin, Jamin B.; Bonifaz, John, The Wealth Primary:Campaign Fundraising and the Constitution, Center for Responsive Politics, ISBN 978-0939715213
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Chris Van Hollen		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 8th congressional district
2017–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Current U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by
Jimmy Panetta
D-California		 United States Representatives by seniority
410th		 Succeeded by
Francis Rooney
R-Florida
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