Effie Stein

**Effie Alexandria Stein** (born July 23, 1975) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. She has served as the U.S. Representative for District 3 since 2001 and has also served in leadership positions.

A self-described democratic socialist and progressive, Stein is known for her opposition to economic inequality. On domestic policy, she broadly supports labor rights, and has supported and authored passing legislation regarding universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, and tuition-free tertiary education. On foreign policy, she supports reducing military spending, pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation, and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements.

## Early life and education

Effie Stein was born on July 23, 1975, in Washington, the District of Columbia, where she has since resided. Shortly before turning 16, Stein found a job working at her father's fiance's Thai and Lao restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Washington D.C. She worked at the Mount Pleasant Restaurant for three years before attending the University of the District of Columbia in 1994.

Stein attended Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights, Washington, D.C., graduating in 1993. After finishing high school, she was accepted at the University of the District of Columbia where she came in second for Political Sciences and U.S. History, and graduated with a Bachelor's in Political Science in 1998. Stein continued her higher education after enrolling at George Washington University in order to pursue a Master's Degree, but dropped out shortly after announcing her candidacy for the open 3rd U.S. House of Representatives seat.

## 2000 campaign and election

The 2000 congressional election was the only election in U.S. History in which every seat in the government was vacant at the time of the election. Stein announced her candidacy to challenge Democrat Louis Crane in the election to represent the 3rd House of Representatives district on July 24th, 2000, in her home-neighborhood of the District of Columbia, Columbia Heights.

**Independent and Democratic primaries**

Stein ran as an Independent, and was unopposed in the Independent primary. Louis Crane, a member of the Democratic Party, announced his candidacy one day before Stein, and won the Democratic nomination as an unopposed candidate in the district's primary. Crane did not ever formally announce his candidacy.

**Endorsements**

Stein was endorsed by the Justice Democrats, a progressive organization self-tasked with leftist activism, passing progressive legislation, and electing progressive members of Congress.

The Democratic candidate for the Senate's Southeastern district, Jackie Onassis-Clarke, endorsed Stein on July 25, followed by the Democratic candidate for the Senate's Northeastern district, Meghan Madison, on July 27, the day of the election.

Fellow candidate for the House of Representatives, and fellow Justice Democrats-endorsed nominee, Josiah Bartlet, also endorsed Stein on July 25, shortly after Jackie-Onassis Clarke's endorsement of her on the same day.

**General election**

On July 27, 2000, Stein received 66.7% of the vote to Crane's 33.3%, defeating the Democratic nominee by the third-highest margin of any House election in the 2000 General Elections. Her win, and Crane's defeat, was predicted by every pollster prior to the election

## 107th House

**Initial Tenure**

Stein was sworn in as the U.S. Representative for the 3rd House of Representatives district on January 20th, 2001. Shortly after being sworn in, Stein announced that she would be caucusing with the House Democratic Caucus, which controlled a supermajority of the House following the 2000 General Elections. On July 28th, Stein was elected by the House Democratic Caucus to serve as the Majority Whip of the 107th Congress, serving with newly-elected Majority Leader Jean Pierre Polnareff, and Speaker of the House Aaron Ventura, both Democrats. Following deliberation with Speaker Ventura, Stein was assigned to serve as the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Public Affairs, but was later reassigned to become Chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight following the resignation of Representative Columbus from the position.

**Patent Relief Act**

On July 30th, 2001, Stein proposed her first piece of legislation to the House. Aimed at capping prescription drug costs in the United States, Stein insisted, "we are in dire need of this sort of regulation on a currently unregulated market,". On August 4th, 2001, the Patent Relief Act was signed into law by President Ben Walker, making HR302 Stein's very first bill to be passed into law.

**Occupied Youths Act**

On August 3rd, 2001, four days after proposing the Patent Relief Act to the committee on Oversight, Stein put forward the second bill of her career, titled the "Occupied Youths Act", which was aimed at providing federally subsidized after-school programs to every willing public school in America. Like the Patent Relief Act, this bill was successful in being passed into law, being signed by President Walker on August 15th, 2001.

**Universal Care Act**

After deliberating with President Walker on proposing a Medicare for All healthcare plan to Congress, Stein, along with President Walker, authored the Universal Care Act and proposed it to the House on August 13th, 2001. Stein, shortly after the bill was put into the House Committee on Oversight, which is chaired by herself, made a statement on the floor of the committee in which she made her case to the committee, and, indirectly, to the rest of Congress, regarding the Universal Care Act, stating, "the people of this country are no longer going to have to pay thousands of dollars out-of-pocket to private entities in the insurance and medical industry for a life-saving hospital visit, diagnosis, or prescription." The Universal Care Act passed the Oversight Committee by a vote of three in favor, one against, and one abstention. Republican Nigel Farage of the 5th district was the only committee member to vote against the initiative.

One day after passing the House Committee on Oversight, the Universal Care Act was put to the entire House chamber for voting. The bill passed through the House of Representatives by a vote of six in favor, four against, and one non-voting. Every Republican member of the House (with the exception of Wesley Hof, who did not vote) voted against the Universal Care Act along with Jean Polnareff, a self-proclaimed moderate, who was the only Democrat to vote against the bill.

It was predetermined that the Universal Care Act would narrowly pass the U.S. Senate, though on August 14, when the Universal Care Act was up for voting in the whole of the Senate, it became clear that the bill would pass by a much larger margin than anticipated, successfully passing the Senate with every single Democratic senator voting in favor, and the sole Republican voting against.

The Universal Care Act was signed by its co-author, President Ben Walker, the same day, marking Stein's largest legislative achievement to-date.

**District of Columbia Statehood Act**

On August 21, 2002, Stein proposed H.R. 308 to the House Committee on Oversight, which she has chaired since August 4, 2001. H.R. 308, also known as The District of Columbia Statehood Act, was authored and co-authored by President Ben Walker and Stein respectively, and was aimed at providing the non-federal land of the District of Columbia (on which over seven-hundred-thousand people reside, a population larger than both Wyoming and Vermont) official status as the fifty-first state of the United States. In her initial statement to the committee on Oversight, Stein cited the saying "no taxation without representation" as a major American proverb being violated by not allowing Washington, D.C. to become a state, claiming, "a free people is inherently unfree when they are bound to taxation and duties by a federal government in which they are not represented." Stein was born, and has since resided, in the District of Columbia, and has taken part in local activism to provide the district with statehood, budget and legislative autonomy, and voting members of both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

## Baltimore protests

On August 16, 2002, protests broke out in major cities across the United States in favor of prison reform following the pardoning of over 400,000 former inmates a day earlier. Baltimore, one of the largest cities within the House of Representatives' 3rd district, came to be regarded as the biggest hot-spots for the August 16-17 protests. Stein, the Representative for the 3rd district, joined in the Baltimore protests on August 17, making a speech in front of the City Hall over a megaphone. Joined by hundreds of fellow protesters, many of whom had been involved in the protests the day before, Stein made several points against the current criminal justice system, calling it "broken, unbalanced, corporatized, and racist." Stein also reiterated the demands of the protests in Baltimore and other cities, citing resolves such as "significant financial compensation".

## 2002 midterms

Stein announced her candidacy for re-election into the U.S. House of Representatives 3rd district on August 19, 2002, in Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of her hometown, the District of Columbia. She signed-up to run as an Independent on August 19, and was unopposed in the General Election by either party.

On August 24, 2002, Stein was re-elected with 100% of the vote, facing no opposition or write-in ballots.

## 108th House

Shortly after the 2002 midterm elections and the organization of the new Republican-controlled House, Stein was elected to serve as the Minority Leader of the Democratic Caucus, having served as the Majority Whip during the prior term. Stein also became the Ranking Member on the committee she previously chaired, the House Committee on Oversight.

**District of Columbia Statehood Act**

On August 21, 2002, Stein put forth one of the most monumental pieces of legislation in modern American history; the District of Columbia Statehood Act would grant the District of Columbia, where Stein was born and has since resided, official status as the 51st state of the United States of America, and would be officially inducted in the 3rd House District and the 1st Senate District.

One day after proposal, after passing both the House and the Senate by wide margins, bill co-author President Ben Walker signed the DCSA, officially declaring the State of Columbia as the 51st state in the union.

**House Change of Hands**

On September 2, 2003, Republican Majority Leader Nancy Wheeler announced her switch to the Democratic Party, thereby providing the Democratic Party a majority in the House of Representatives. Stein, being the Minority Leader of the Democrats, became the interim Majority Leader until elected to the position by the new Democratic caucus. Stein's new position as the Democrat House Majority Leader lead her to announce her official membership in the Democratic Party shortly after. Following leadership elections, Stein was appointed to once again serve as the Chair of the House Committee on Oversight.