Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (she/her) is in her second term in Congress and proudly serves California’s 51st Congressional District, which includes much of the City of San Diego, and all of the Cities of El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, and the unincorporated communities of Spring Valley and La Presa.
Congresswoman Jacobs is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Africa. She is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee and sits on the Committee’s Quality of Life Panel. In the House Democratic Caucus, she serves as the Caucus Leadership Representative, representing the Democratic Members who have served five terms or less at the Democratic House leadership table. At 35 years old, she is the youngest member of Democratic House leadership.
Congresswoman Jacobs also serves as Founding Co-Chair of the Protection of Civilians in Conflict (POCC) Caucus; Vice Chair of the New Democrat Coalition’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working Group; and Vice Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, where she is Co-Chair of the Transgender Equality Task Force.
Prior to serving in elected office, Congresswoman Jacobs spent years working to address, minimize, and prevent conflict, instability, and inequality around the world. She worked in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations; in the Innovation Unit at UNICEF; in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. Department of State; and as a foreign policy advisor to Secretary Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Congresswoman Jacobs also served as the Founding CEO of Project Connect, a nonprofit dedicated to mapping schools and their Internet connectivity around the world, which has since become one of UNICEF’s flagship programs. She served as a Scholar in Residence at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego, and in 2018, she founded San Diego for Every Child, a coalition dedicated to ending child poverty in San Diego County.
A third-generation San Diegan, Congresswoman Jacobs graduated from Torrey Pines High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Master of International Affairs degree in International Security Policy and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University.