On April 8, 2008, she won the special election for the vacated United States House of Representatives seat of the late Congressman Tom Lantos.

While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with other team members, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.

Speier's political career began with an unsuccessful run to fill the vacancy caused by Ryan's death (the seat she held later).

He lost the special election to the Republican nominee, San Mateo County Supervisor Bill Royer,[15] who served the remaining 21 months of the term before losing to Tom Lantos.

[16] In 1986, midway through her second term on the Board of Supervisors, Speier ran for the California State Assembly from a district in northern San Mateo County.

[18] As a state senator, Speier was instrumental in securing $127 million to start the "Baby Bullet" express service for Caltrain, for which the commuter rail agency named a new locomotive (no.

In 2006, Speier ran in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor of California against insurance commissioner John Garamendi and state senator Liz Figueroa.

She also picked up endorsements from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Congressman Mike Thompson and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

[23] In a January 2016 speech on the House floor, Speier announced that she would introduce legislation requiring schools to disclose disciplinary proceedings of faculty.

[24] On August 16, 2017, Speier advocated the use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove President Trump from office because of erratic behavior and mental instability "that place the country in great danger",[25] following his response to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and dealings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

[27] On October 27, 2017, Speier, as part of the #MeToo movement, posted a video sharing her experience with sexual harassment on Capitol Hill.

[30] Following the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States, Speier was mentioned as a possible contender for a position in his administration, owing to her experience on national security issues.

[33] Speier has worked to remove cases of sexual assault and serious felonies from the chain of command in the military justice system.

She has been quoted by NPR: "We're here today for the service members who have spoken out or who have suffered in silence because the message and culture in the military has been clear: Shut up, suck it up and don't rock the boat.

"[39] Speier co-sponsored the Protecting NATO Skies Act of 2019 to prevent the delivery of F-35s to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to purchase and deploy Russian S-400 air defense systems.

[41] In a February 17, 2011, speech on the House floor, Speier said that she herself had undergone an emergency D&E procedure when complications developed in a wanted pregnancy.

[43][44][45] Speier opposed the Trump administration's reinstatement and expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which blocks foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. health aid from providing referrals for abortion services with their own funding.

She also introduced the PUTIN Act in 2017, legislation to prevent any federal funding for a cybersecurity unit with Russia, as proposed by then President Donald Trump.

[40] In September 2017, as co-chair of the Ahmadiyya Caucus, Speier condemned the human rights abuses perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and supported assistance programs that help partner nations build accountable, transparent governance structures.

[40] Speier opposed the Trump administration's unilateral cuts to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which works in more than 150 countries to end preventable maternal deaths, provide voluntary family planning, combat gender-based violence such as child marriage, and train health care workers.

She led a letter Archived July 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine with 145 of her colleagues urging the administration to reverse its decision to withhold U.S.

That includes her amendment that passed the House to provide more than $40 million to Armenian Democracy Assistance[54] and establish direct flights between California and Yerevan.