The daughter of a beer truck driver and former Teamster and a cafeteria cook, Zoe has lived in the Bay Area for her entire life.
Zoe serves as the Ranking Member and top Democrat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. In this leadership role, Zoe is focused on spurring innovation and fostering scientific advancement – particularly in the agricultural sector — and cultivating the nation’s STEM pipeline. She specifically plans to push Congress and the Administration to double down and accelerate research on fusion energy and – using her on-the-ground California expertise – work to bolster the federal scientific agenda on wildfires and flooding, as these yearly seasonal climate issues cause increasing devastation to our communities.
Additionally, Zoe serves as a senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee. In this position – and as a longtime immigration attorney and immigration law professor – Zoe is recognized by her colleagues and immigration advocates as an established champion of comprehensive immigration reform, a national leader on immigration policy, and a staunch defender of DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program). Zoe is a champion of top-to-bottom immigration reform. She held the coveted role of Chair or Ranking Member of the House Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee from 2007-2021
Re-elected once again by her colleagues, Zoe currently serves as the Chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation – consisting of 43 Democratic Members of the House of Representatives from California.
Zoe is a longtime leader on anti-corruption, campaign finance, and pro-democracy reforms. In January 2019, Zoe was chosen by then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Chair the House Administration Committee – a position often referred to as the “Mayor of Capitol Hill” – and unanimously confirmed by her colleagues to the position. The House Administration Committee oversees federal elections, campaign finance, and legislative branch agencies that support Members of Congress, including the Architect of the Capitol, Capitol Police, and the Library of Congress. She served in this role until January 2021. During that time, Zoe shepherded H.R. 1, the “For the People Act”, through the legislative process in the 116th and 117th Congresses, culminating with its House passage twice. The sweeping package would have put power back in the hands of the American people by limiting the dominance of big money in politics, making it easier – not harder – to vote, and ensuring that politicians actually serve the public interest.
During the previous Congress, Zoe also served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Along with former Rep. Liz Cheney, Zoe led the House in passing the bipartisan Presidential Election Reform Act.
Zoe also served as a House Manager in the 2020 impeachment trial of Donald Trump and is the first woman in U.S. history to ever present a presidential case to the Senate. She is also the only Member of Congress to have participated in all four modern impeachment proceedings.
Zoe attended Palo Alto public schools from K-12. With the help of scholarships and a night shift job at the Eastman Kodak plant in Palo Alto, Zoe later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University and cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law.
After college, Zoe served on the staff of former Congressman Don Edwards for eight years in both his San Jose and Washington offices.
Following Congressman Don Edwards’ retirement, Zoe entered the Democratic primary in what was then the 16th congressional district. Zoe was the decided underdog in the primary, but with the help of friends, neighbors, and supporters she turned around a 20-point deficit to pull off an upset win. In her campaign, Zoe challenged a state law that said she couldn’t list her occupation as “county supervisor/mother” on the election ballot. The California legislature changed the law later that year.
While practicing and teaching immigration law, she was first elected to the San Jose Evergreen Community College Board in 1979. The same year, Zoe became the first Executive Director of the San Jose non-profit Community Housing Developers, and she has been committed to solving the affordable housing crisis in the area for decades.
Zoe also served on the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority and chaired the committee studying BART’s extension to the South Bay as a County Supervisor. Continuing into her time in Congress, Zoe spearheaded the Measure A and Measure B highway funding campaigns, which provided funding to improve Highways 85, 101, and 237; connected BART and Caltrain in downtown San Jose and Santa Clara County; and helped relieve traffic congestion on all 10 area expressways.
