Rosa DeLauro

Rosa DeLauro grew up in New Haven with local politics in the family: both her father, Theodore, and her mother, Luisa, served on the Board of Aldermen.¹ Her father arrived from Italy at 13 without speaking English, and she later knocked on doors alongside him in their hometown.¹ She also credits her experience with ovarian cancer with shaping her advocacy for women's health research.¹

She graduated from Marymount College, earned a master's degree in international politics at Columbia and also studied at the London School of Economics.¹ Before becoming a congresswoman, she managed Chris Dodd's Senate campaign, served as his chief of staff and led EMILY's List, which supports Democratic women who favor abortion rights.¹

DeLauro entered Congress in 1991 and now serves as the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees federal spending.² As its chair from 2021 to 2023, she helped restore funding for individual community projects, including infrastructure and nonprofit services.³ She also established Rosa's Readers, a program encouraging district first graders to read.¹

Her current priorities include a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit, lower child care costs and national paid family leave.⁴ Facing Republican Chris Lancia, she is also seeking another opportunity to chair Appropriations if Democrats win the House, with education, job opportunities and oversight of federal grants among her stated goals.³