Christina Marie Houlahan (/ˈhuːləhæn/ HOO-lə-hann; née Jampoler; born June 5, 1967)[1] is an American politician, engineer, and former United States Air Force officer.

[2][3] Her father, Andrew C. A. Jampoler, a naval aviator, was born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1942, to a Jewish family; he and his mother, who also survived the Holocaust, emigrated to the United States when he was four years old.

[7][8][9] Houlahan, citing her idols as Indiana Jones and Sally Ride,[10] earned her bachelor's degree[11][12] in engineering from Stanford University in 1989, on an AFROTC scholarship.

[5] Citing a need to experience the problems in the U.S. educational system first-hand, Houlahan entered the lifelong learning program at University of Pennsylvania where she re-took courses in the hard sciences.

[16] She withdrew from the Teach for America program after one year and joined Springboard Collaborative, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit focusing on early childhood literacy in underserved populations nationwide.

She joined two other female military veterans in the House freshman class, former naval officers Elaine Luria and Mikie Sherrill.

[3][29] She was also endorsed by many organizations, including Emily's List,[30] Human Rights Campaign,[31] Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence,[32] Project 100,[33] Vote Vets,[34] the Service Employees International Union-PA (SEIU PA)[35] and several other unions.

[37] Houlahan had publicly expressed interest in a 2022 campaign for the United States Senate, but on June 8, she announced she would run for reelection to the House.

[40] On July 29, 2024, Houlahan was announced as one of six Democratic members of a bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

[44] Houlahan supports the government negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies and a public option, but opposes a single payer healthcare system.

[46][47] In 2022, Houlahan was one of 16 Democrats to vote against the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.

[48][49] Houlahan believes that critical and emerging technology leadership is a core component of U.S. national security, citing biotechnology as a priority for research and development.