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Election Night saw plenty of history making across the country, and some milestones are still to be set. With Democrats taking the US House, Massachusetts’ own Katherine Clark is poised to become the next House majority leader — the first woman ever to hold the role. The progressive lawmaker has been on the rise over the last decade or so. As second-in-command, the Revere Democrat will hold an important leadership role under Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who’s expected to be elected as the first Black House Speaker when the new Congressional term starts in January. Here are a few things to know about Clark, and the position of majority leader. She was first elected in 2013 Clark was first elected to Congress in a special election to fill Ed Markey’s House seat after voters elected him to the Senate. (He just won a third Senate term Tuesday.) At the time, she was serving in Massachusetts’ state Senate. Clark’s ascent in national politics has looked almost effortless. She was elected as vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus in 2018, moving up to the assistant speaker position in 2020. In 2022, she ran unopposed for the Democratic Whip, becoming only the second woman to hold the title after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But as the Globe reported in 2022, the congresswoman spent months quietly securing support before running for her party’s second-in-command slot. “I never contemplated politics as a career for myself,” Clark told the Globe in 2022. “My interest in politics really came out of working very closely with the state Legislature and watching how important those decisions were to the families that they impacted.” The ‘silent assassin’ Clark has built a reputation among her colleagues for being tough, caring, and unafraid to approach the other side of the aisle. While on the midterm campaign trail in Ohio, US Representative Marcy Kaptur said Clark would return “a sense of order” to the House if Democrats took the majority. Fellow Ohio Democrat, US Representative Emilia Sykes, told Politico earlier this month that Clark knew how to “push” her colleagues “to where you need them to be or not need them to be, and you only get that from getting to know people well.” As the party’s No. 2, Clark is charged with maintaining communication between Democratic leadership and its members, and rallying lawmakers behind key legislation even in face of intra-party divides. Those duties will be critical in the next Democratic-led House, which will be built of progressives, moderates, and a few members who identify as Democratic socialists. “This isn’t going to be my-way-or-the-highway from any one given group,” Clark told Politico when speaking about the possibility of a Democratic majority. “We’re not always going to agree. People disagree with calls I make as the whip all the time, but the point is to understand the caucus, pull us together on those common values and threads.” Colleagues of Clark have told the Globe in previous years that the Democratic Whip has a nickname among some in the House — the “silent assassin.” “My takeaway is don’t mess with Katherine Clark,” California Representative Pete Aguilar told the Globe in 2022. Second-in-command to Jeffries As majority leader, Clark will be tasked with scheduling legislation for floor consideration, setting weekly agendas, and pushing Democrats’ priorities forward. The second-in-command of the House does not serve on standing committees or typically lead floor debates. But Clark will be essential to building winning coalitions to pass key legislation and will act as a spokesperson for House Democrats next term. In an interview with WBUR published Wednesday, Clark said among her short-term goals for Democrats was to “restore the cuts that the Republican Party has done.” “Their so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that has just ravaged families and has made life so hard,” Clark said. “So we’re talking about putting back Medicaid cuts, Medicare, veterans’ benefits and food programs across this country.” When asked about potentially becoming the first woman to serve as House majority leader, Clark called it “an incredible privilege and honor.” “And it is the voices of moms that I’ve met … the hope that they have that they can still hopefully build a better future,” Clark said. “Those are the voices that I’m going to bring to the leadership table with me, and that is the opportunity that the American voters have given us in this new Congress, the 120th Congress.” — Original article HERE .