U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark announces run for Democratic Whip

With Republicans grabbing control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections, Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark on Friday declared she will run for Democratic Whip in this month's leadership elections.

Members of the all-Democrat Massachusetts House delegation are preparing to give up their powerful leadership posts and operate as the minority party in the House in 2023 and 2024, when they will try to retake the chamber.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Thursday announced she will not seek any leadership post in the next Congress, clearing the way for a new batch of Democrats, including Clark, to play a greater role within the party's ranks in the House.

In a letter to colleagues seeking their support, Clark, who lives in Revere, offered her analysis of the midterms.

"Americans have rejected Republican extremism and affirmed our commitment to working people," she wrote. "By standing with women, for democracy, and for everyone's economic security, we have defied expectations and secured a historically close margin in the House. Now, we must be tough, agile, and united to stop the Republican House Majority's dangerous agenda and take back the House."

As voters in Massachusetts and elsewhere drop party affiliations and move into the ranks of the unenrolled, Clark said Democrats "will require a united front" to succeed. "We are a team, and we must leverage our strength to win" she wrote.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is expected to take the Democratic minority leader's post, according to numerous media reports.

Clark served as a state senator and state representative before being elected to Congress in 2013 after she emerged from a crowd of Democrats in a special election primary.