Jake Auchincloss Bio
Jacob Daniel Auchincloss (born January 29, 1988) is an American politician, businessman, and Marine Corps officer serving as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served on the Newton City Council from 2015 to 2021, and he holds the rank of major in the Marine Corps Reserve. Auchincloss graduated from Harvard University in 2010 and later earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2016.
Before entering Congress, Auchincloss worked in entrepreneurship programs and in the private sector, including roles in cybersecurity and innovation at Liberty Mutual. He is known in Washington for his centrist posture, his pro-Israel stance, and his early congressional experiments with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Early Life and Background
Jacob Daniel Auchincloss was born on January 29, 1988, in Newton, Massachusetts, to Laurie Glimcher and Hugh Auchincloss. Both of his parents are physician-scientists who specialize in immunology. His mother is a scientist and the former president and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, while his father is a surgeon who briefly served as the interim director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2023.
Auchincloss was raised in Newton alongside his sister, Kalah, and his brother, Hugh G. He attended Newton North High School. He is Jewish by matrilineality and was raised in his mother’s faith, while his father is of Scottish ancestry. His maternal grandfather, Melvin J. Glimcher, pioneered the development of artificial limbs and the robotic arm, and once chaired orthopedic surgery at Harvard University.
He studied government and economics at Harvard University, graduating in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors. He then returned to graduate school and earned a Master of Business Administration in finance in 2016 from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Path to US Politics
After graduating from Harvard, Auchincloss joined the United States Marine Corps, earning his commission through Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia. He completed infantry training in Quantico and the Marine Corps’s reconnaissance training in California, and he graduated from the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school in Maine as an honor graduate from the Basic Airborne Course in Georgia. He commanded infantry in Helmand Province in 2012, leading combat patrols through villages contested by the Taliban, and a reconnaissance unit in Panama in 2014 that partnered with Colombian special operations to train the Panamanian Public Forces in drug-interdiction tactics.
Returning home from the military, Auchincloss worked on Charlie Baker’s successful 2014 gubernatorial campaign. In 2015, he ran for the Newton City Council on a platform of full-day kindergarten and expanded pre-K offerings and defeated the incumbent councilor. He was reelected to the Newton City Council in 2017 and 2019, chaired the transportation and public safety committee, and supported progressive immigration and housing policies, sustainable transportation, and a successful sanctuary city ordinance.
While serving on the council and attending MIT, he also worked as the director of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, at a cybersecurity startup as a product manager, and at Liberty Mutual as a senior manager at its innovation arm, Solaria Labs. In October 2019, he announced his candidacy for the open Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district to succeed Joe Kennedy III.
Jake Auchincloss Career
Early Career (2014-2019)
Auchincloss’s political career began with his work on Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign. His transition into elected office came the following year, when he won a seat on the Newton City Council in 2015 by defeating the incumbent councilor on a platform focused on early childhood education. He was reelected in 2017 and again in 2019, building a local record on transportation, public safety, and progressive municipal policies.
During this period, he earned his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2016 and continued serving in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was promoted to major on September 1, 2020. He also became the first elected official to endorse Ruthanne Fuller for mayor of Newton and established himself as a pragmatic moderate willing to work across traditional party lines.
Congressional Breakthrough (2019-2020)
In August 2019, when Joe Kennedy III announced he would run for the U.S. Senate, Auchincloss began laying the groundwork for a congressional bid. He raised the most money during the primary election in both the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, and he earned endorsements from the National Association of Government Employees, VoteVets, The Boston Globe, and James E. Timilty. He also won the support of several Newton politicians, including the president and vice president of the city council.
The Democratic primary took place on September 1, 2020. In a race with eight other candidates, Auchincloss won with 22.4% of the vote, and it took the Associated Press three days to call the race because nearly one million votes were cast through mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the November general election, he defeated Republican nominee Julie Hall and assumed office on January 3, 2021, becoming the U.S. representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district at age 32.
4th Congressional District Era (2021-Present)
Since taking office, Auchincloss has carved out a profile as a centrist Democrat with a strong interest in technology and foreign policy. On January 25, 2023, he delivered a one-minute speech on the House floor that was generated entirely using ChatGPT, making it the first speech in Congress written with artificial intelligence. The address outlined his proposal for a U.S.-Israel research facility focused on artificial intelligence.
He has also been a prominent voice on social media regulation, co-sponsoring the bipartisan TikTok forced divestiture or ban bill and calling TikTok “digital fentanyl.” He has pushed to raise the age of internet adulthood to 16, and he has authored legislation that has drawn both bipartisan interest and progressive criticism. He has also served as the inaugural chairman of Majority Democrats, a new group of Democratic elected officials.
On the world stage, Auchincloss has been described as a pro-Israel lawmaker. He voted to provide Israel with support following the October 2023 Hamas attack, and at a July 2025 town hall in Newton, Massachusetts, he reiterated his position that Hamas bears singular responsibility for the ongoing war in Gaza. He has also written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging U.S.-led diplomacy rooted in mutual recognition, security, and dignity.
Notable Events and Milestones
On January 6, 2021, after the attack on the United States Capitol, Auchincloss publicly backed calls to remove President Donald Trump from office through the Twenty-fifth Amendment or impeachment, and he voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in the early morning of January 7, 2021. He has voted with President Joe Biden 100% of the time according to FiveThirtyEight, earning a Biden Plus/Minus score of +1. In 2024, he endorsed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as a running mate for Kamala Harris, citing Shapiro’s centrist appeal.
Jake Auchincloss Career Wins
Jake Auchincloss’s career wins span local, state, and federal elections, beginning with his first victory for the Newton City Council in 2015 and culminating in his 2020 election to the United States Congress. His early endorsements and fundraising strength set him apart in a crowded primary field, and his general election victory confirmed his appeal across Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district.
Newton City Council Highlights
Auchincloss first won a seat on the Newton City Council in 2015 by defeating the incumbent councilor. He went on to win reelection in 2017 and 2019, and he chaired the council’s transportation and public safety committee. He was the first elected official to endorse Ruthanne Fuller for mayor of Newton, further establishing his influence in local politics.
Other Wins & Achievements
Beyond elected office, Auchincloss achieved the rank of major in the Marine Corps Reserve on September 1, 2020, and he earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 2016. As of July 2025, he held an “A” rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) based on his public statements and voting record.
Jake Auchincloss Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Auchincloss was born to a family with deep roots in medicine and science. His mother, Laurie Glimcher, is a physician-scientist and the former president and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, while his father, Hugh Auchincloss, is a surgeon who briefly served as the interim director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2023. His maternal grandfather, Melvin J. Glimcher, pioneered the development of artificial limbs and the robotic arm and once chaired orthopedic surgery at Harvard University. He is also a distant relative of Hugh D. Auchincloss Jr., the step-father of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and author Gore Vidal.
Personal Life
On July 28, 2017, Auchincloss married his wife, Michelle. The couple has three children: a son and two daughters. They live in Newtonville, Massachusetts.