Jackie Speier joins ABC7 News Bay Area as Political Analyst

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Former Bay Area Congresswoman Jackie Speier is joining the ABC7 News team as the news organization's political analyst. Speier served in Congress for 15 years starting in 2008. The Democrat did not run for re-election to the House of Representatives in November 2022 and retired from Congress at the end of last year.

Speier will first join ABC7 News anchors for on-set analysis prior to, and following President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb. 7. She will make regular appearances on ABC7 News programs, offering expert knowledge of the inner workings of the political system happening at the local, state and national levels.

Speier has spent more than 40 years in Bay Area elected offices, beginning with her election to the San Mateo Board of Supervisors in 1980. Before that, Speier served in the California State Senate from 1998 to 2006 and in the State Assembly from 1986 to 1996.

During her service in Congress, Speier supported stricter gun control laws, abortion rights, and worked to remove cases of sexual assault from the chain of command in the military justice system.

The San Francisco native was an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan in 1978 when they embarked on a fact-finding mission to investigate Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers. The group had moved to Jonestown, Guyana in 1977 and 1978. Speier was shot five times as she and the investigative team prepared to leave Jonestown. Ryan died along with four others.

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