Harvey Fisch

Harvey Fisch
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**Harvey Fisch** is an American politician who served as Speaker of the House from 2025 to 2026, Fisch represented Cascade's 1st District, where he was elected unopposed. Previously, Fisch ran for Cascade's 2nd District, where he narrowly lost to Independent Candidate, Jiafei.

Fisch also served as chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2023 to 2024. He stepped down as DNC Chair to be the running mate of Presidential Candidate, Phil Reed, after Reed dropped out he served as Campaign Manager to Martha Holley

## Personal Life

Fisch was born in New York, New York in 1996. He is the youngest of three. His father is an electrician and his mother was a school social worker. During the 2008 Recession, his father was laid off and his family was forced to move across the country to rural Washington when Fisch was 12. Fisch describes his school transition was surprisingly easy and saying his community was largely welcoming. He would later cite this welcoming community as a motive for him to run for Congress.

Fisch would attend Stanford, which he graduated from a year early. It was here that he became involved with activist work and politics, getting involved with several LGBTQIA+ groups and becoming Vice President of Stanford Democrats his senior year. He then graduated at the top of his class from Stanford Law. At Stanford Law he met his current girlfriend, whom he has been dating for 5 years. After graduation, he worked as a public defender for several months in Los Angeles. He resigned from this position and moved to Seattle where he worked as a prosecutor, working his way to Assistant District Attorney. Fisch claims he made this move to be closer to family and this new career paid more and he struggled with student loans.

## First Congressional Run

Living in Seattle for a year and a half, Fisch was inspired to run for Congress in Cascade-02. He did so to give back to the community that welcomed him at a difficult point in his life and to set the country on a more progressive path. Fisch centered his campaign on "fighting" for the average American. Fisch entered the primary late, although he was unopposed. With no Republican challenger, he had an independent opponent who got into the race very early and out-fundraised him by tens of thousands of dollars. He tendered his position with the Seattle District Attorney's Office to focus on his campaign. Fisch lost his race on November 8, 2022.

## District Attorney of San Francisco

After losing his election, the Mayor of San Francisco called Fisch to offer him the position of District Attorney. The position became vacated after Jenkins' resignation on November 9, 2022 when she was elected to serve in the California General Assembly. Fisch accepted the position and was sworn in on November 12, 2022. Under his leadership, he worked to reduce costs and make the DA's Office more efficient by replacing outdated, costly, and inefficient practices with streamlined and modern policies. He also strengthened the branch of his department tasked with prosecuting police, which drew criticism from the Right but praise from the Left.

While Fisch has been an active leader of his Office and revamped the DA's Office in several ways, he has nonetheless drawn criticism. He was largely criticized for focusing more on his campaign and refusal to resign. He received more criticism when he left the state to campaign for other Democrats. A recall petition was put together but it did not gain enough signatures and was not considered to be very serious. Recently, Fisch has drawn criticism for refusing to resign despite continuing to spend large amounts of time outside of both San Francisco and California. His office has stated on multiple occasions he will wait for his elected successor to be sworn in. Despite this, he has remained quite popular in the city.

## DNC Leadership Roles

### DNC Chair

Brian Tohen was removed as DNC Chair after a vote by the Democratic Party due to his consistent inactivity and lack of hands on leadership. Fresh off his Congressional loss, Fisch ran to replace Tohen. He defeated Senator Andrew Rodriguez with 68% of the vote to Senator Rodriguez's 29% (Senator Arlene Foster also ran but she only received 4% of the vote). Fisch quickly began to stabilize the DNC Leadership, appointing a second Vice Chair and creating several new positions, such as Director of Bipartisan Relations and Finance Chair. He oversaw the DNC during a tumultuous time. Fisch brokered a deal between the United Freedom Party, or the UFP, and absorbed the members into the DNC. This merger brought in several major figures such as Representative Phil Reed, Representative Fred Minion, and Joey Samuel. This agreement also secured Democrats a majority in the House, and although it went unrecognized officially, Democrats had a voting bloc to veto Republican legislation. Fisch also unmasked and expelled former-Representative Brandon Tucker. He stepped as DNC Chair to accept the position of running mate to Phil Reed, before brokering a deal between Reed and Martha Holley and became their Campaign Manager. He was succeeded by his endorsed successor, Elizabeth Coin.

### Finance Chair

Fisch was appointed Finance Chair by Chair Elizabeth Coin.

## Second Congressional Run (2024)

Fisch initially declined to run in Cascade-01, and endorsed Mayor Jacob Johnson to succeed Representative Elizabeth Coin. However, Johnson failed to file or show much interest in a Congressional bid, so after several weeks of decision making, Harvey Fisch announced his candidacy for Cascade-01. He had no primary opponent or general election opponent. Despite this, he remained one of the largest fundraisers of all House candidates and has the second largest war chest among all Democrats. His lack of opponents allowed Fisch to support other Democrats across the country. He is expected to win his Congressional election and succeed Elizabeth Coin on January 3, 2025 at noon.

## Tenure in the House

Harvey Fisch became the first Democrat to publicly announce his candidacy for House Democratic Leader in the 119th Congress. He has said he will run for Minority Leader, or more likely, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Several have been critical of his lack of experience in the House, but others have cited his leadership knowledge and his tireless effort to secure a House majority for Democrats. Fisch has been endorsed for Leader by many Democrats and is the presumed front-runner. He received challenges from Fred Minion, who dropped out of the race before election results; and Joey Samuel who dropped out of the race to switch parties. On January 3, 2025, he was elected unanimously by the full House Floor.

During his Speakership, he was known for steadfastness and decisiveness, although some did not always see him as rational. Quickly after becoming Speaker, the House would adopt his Rules Package which would centralize a great deal of power to the Speaker's gavel. This power would put him in hot water when he censored and suspended former Representative Joey Samuel for violating House Decorum. Some claimed this move was unreasonable, however Speaker Fisch refused to relent. Also under his leadership, he would change the way that the House convened and voted, making the process easier. He would also c-sponsor a great deal of legislation, all of which passed on the floor. Nearly every bill in his tenure would pass, almost all of which did so with bipartisan support. His effective vote counting abilities gained him praise.

Despite all of his, Speaker Harvey Fisch is mostly remembered for his short tenure. The persistent chaos in the House became very time-consuming and with family issues mounting across the country, Speaker Fisch left Congress to address the needs of his family. He was succeeded by John Shake as Speaker.

## Post Speakership

After leaving office, Fisch has led a relatively quiet life. He continues to offer legal advice to Public Defenders, although he has not practiced in a court of law since January of 2025. He has been a speaker at his Ulma Mater, Stanford, and taught a semester at Columbia's SIPA. He announced through an MNN interview that he would not re-enter politics, and instead would devote his private life to helping non-profit organizations.