Jamie Raskin Bio
Jamin Ben Raskin (born December 13, 1962) is an American attorney, law professor, and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Maryland’s 8th congressional district since 2017. A progressive member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Maryland State Senate from 2007 to 2016, representing District 20, which included parts of Silver Spring and Takoma Park in Montgomery County. In Congress, Raskin co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus and served as the lead House impeachment manager for President Donald Trump’s second impeachment following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Early Life and Background
Jamin Ben Raskin was born in Washington, D.C., on December 13, 1962, to Jewish parents Barbara (née Bellman) Raskin and Marcus Raskin. His mother was a journalist and novelist, and his father was a former staff aide to President John F. Kennedy on the National Security Council, a co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies, and a progressive activist. Raskin’s ancestors immigrated to the United States from Russia, and his given name is a variant of that of his paternal grandfather, Benjamin Raskin.
Raskin graduated from Georgetown Day School in 1979 at age 16, then attended Harvard College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1983, with a concentration in political theory. In 1987, he received a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Raskin worked briefly as general counsel for Jesse Jackson’s National Rainbow Coalition from 1989 to 1990.
Path to US Politics
For more than 25 years, Raskin was a constitutional law professor at American University Washington College of Law, where he co-founded and directed the LL.M. program on law and government and co-founded the Marshall–Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. In 1996, he represented businessman Ross Perot in a dispute over Perot’s exclusion from the 1996 United States presidential debates and wrote a Washington Post opinion piece criticizing the Federal Election Commission and the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Raskin first entered elective politics in 2006, when he defeated incumbent Maryland state senator Ida G. Ruben in the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election. In 2012, he was named Senate majority whip and chaired the Montgomery County Senate Delegation and the Select Committee on Ethics Reform. Raskin described himself as a “hands-on progressive” while in the legislature, sponsoring bills on the repeal of the death penalty, the medical use of marijuana, the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the National Popular Vote interstate compact.
Jamie Raskin Career
Early Career (2006–2016)
During his three terms in the Maryland State Senate, Jamie Raskin built a record as a progressive leader on civil liberties, election reform, and social justice issues. He helped lead the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland and was widely quoted for his response to an opposing lawmaker during a 2006 hearing: “Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.” In 2014, he introduced a medical marijuana bill that was signed by Governor Martin O’Malley and went into effect in January 2015.
Raskin also served as the first chairman of the Maryland State Higher Education Labor Relations Board, an appointment he received in 1999 from Governor Parris Glendening, and he later managed Doug Gansler’s successful campaign in the 2006 Maryland Attorney General election. A former board member of FairVote, Raskin introduced the first bill in the country for the National Popular Vote, an interstate compact plan to elect the president by popular vote.
Congressional Campaign and Election Wins (2016)
In April 2015, The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post reported that Raskin had announced his campaign for Congress, saying, “My ambition is not to be in the political center, it is to be in the moral center.” He ran to succeed seven-term incumbent Chris Van Hollen, who gave up the seat to run for the United States Senate. Raskin won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary, the real contest in the heavily Democratic district, with 33 percent of the vote, and was viewed as the most liberal candidate in the race.
During the general election, Raskin was endorsed by the Bernie Sanders-affiliated political organizing network Our Revolution and the community organizing effort People’s Action. He defeated Republican nominee Dan Cox with 60 percent of the vote and took office in January 2017. In 2018, Raskin won reelection, followed by additional victories in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
House Tenure and Impeachment Role (2017–Present)
As one of his first actions in Congress, Raskin and several other House members objected to the certification of the 2016 presidential election, citing alleged Russian interference and voter suppression; Vice President Joe Biden ruled the objection out of order because it lacked a Senate sponsor. In April 2018, Raskin joined Representatives Jared Huffman, Jerry McNerney, and Dan Kildee in launching the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which he now co-chairs, with stated goals of promoting reason, science, and the separation of church and state in public policy.
On January 12, 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named Raskin the lead impeachment manager for the Senate trial following President Donald Trump’s second impeachment. He was the primary author of the article of impeachment, along with Representatives David Cicilline and Ted Lieu, which charged Trump with inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. On July 1, 2021, Raskin was one of seven Democrats appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, and on July 12, 2022, he co-led the committee’s seventh public hearing with Representative Stephanie Murphy.
Notable Events and Milestones
In June 2017, Raskin was the chief sponsor of legislation to establish a congressional commission to evaluate whether the president was unfit to perform the duties of the office, with possible implications for invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Raskin and the other members of the January 6th Committee were nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for their “defense of freedom and democracy.” On November 25, 2025, Raskin released a House Judiciary Committee report titled Trump, Crypto, and a New Age of Corruption, concluding that President Trump’s cryptocurrency policies benefited Trump and his family and that he dismantled anti-corruption safeguards to build a crypto empire.
Jamie Raskin Career Wins
Jamie Raskin has won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, representing Maryland’s 8th congressional district continuously since 2017. Before his time in Congress, Raskin won three terms in the Maryland State Senate beginning in 2006.
Congressional Election Highlights
Raskin first won his U.S. House seat in 2016 by capturing a seven-way Democratic primary with 33 percent of the vote and then defeating Republican Dan Cox with 60 percent of the vote in the general election. His 2016 primary was the most expensive House primary race of that year, although Raskin was heavily outspent by his opponents. He has continued to win reelection in successive cycles, including 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, anchoring his role as a leading progressive voice in the House.
Other Wins & Achievements
Raskin sponsored the first bill in the country for the National Popular Vote interstate compact, championed the legalization of medical marijuana in Maryland through a bill signed in 2014, and helped lead the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland. He was the lead House impeachment manager during President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021 and later served on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jamie Raskin Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Jamie Raskin is the son of Marcus Raskin, a former staff aide to President John F. Kennedy on the National Security Council, a co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies, and a progressive activist, and Barbara Bellman Raskin, a journalist and novelist. Raskin’s paternal ancestors immigrated to the United States from Russia, and his given name is a variant of his paternal grandfather’s name, Benjamin Raskin.
Personal Life
Raskin has been married to Sarah Bloom Raskin since 1990, and the couple lives in Takoma Park, Maryland. Sarah Bloom Raskin served as the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation from 2007 to 2010, as a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, and as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 2014 to 2017. The Raskins have two daughters, Hannah and Tabitha, and a son named Tommy, who died on December 31, 2020, at the age of 25. Raskin has been vegetarian since 2009.