Jim McGovern

Jim McGovern first volunteered for a presidential campaign in seventh grade, working for George McGovern, who was no relation.¹ He grew up in Worcester, where his parents ran a package store and both sisters became public school teachers.¹ He and his wife, Lisa, have two children.¹

He earned a bachelor's degree and a master's in public administration at American University.² His college work included a job in Senator George McGovern's office, and he managed McGovern's 1984 presidential campaign in Massachusetts.² He then spent 14 years as an aide to Congressman Joe Moakley.² That work included investigating the 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador.¹

First elected to Congress in 1996, McGovern is the senior Democrat on the Rules Committee and also serves on Agriculture.¹ He sponsored the House bill that became the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, establishing restrictions on imports linked to forced labor in China's Xinjiang region.³

His legislative work emphasizes food security, human rights and changing campaign finance rules.¹² Outside Washington, he helps lead the annual March for the Food Bank, a fundraiser whose planned 2026 route covers 46 miles over two days in western Massachusetts.⁴ McGovern is unopposed on November's printed ballot.⁵