Yvette Clarke
Yvette Clarke, a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House since 2007 and has represented New York's 9th congressional district since 2013, seeks re-election in 2026 against Republican Joel Anabilah-Azumah, a bus company owner.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Yvette Clarke.
- Born
- November 21, 1964
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York City
- Education
- Edward R. Murrow High School
Oberlin College (1982 to 1986)
Medgar Evers College
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Yvette Clarke was born on November 21, 1964, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to Lesley Clarke and former city councilwoman Una Clarke, both immigrants from Jamaica.
She graduated from Edward R. Murrow High School and attended Oberlin College in Ohio on a scholarship from 1982 to 1986, spending one summer as an intern in the Washington office of Representative Major Owens.
In August 2006, press reports based on her Oberlin transcripts indicated that she had not graduated, contrary to her campaign literature, and Clarke later said she had completed her degree by attending courses at Medgar Evers College.
Career
Yvette Clarke worked as a childcare specialist, as an assistant to State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Barbara Clark, and as director of business development for the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.
In 2001 she won election to the New York City Council from the 40th district, succeeding her mother in the first mother-to-daughter succession on the council, and she served there from 2002 to 2006.
After losing the 2004 Democratic primary for the 11th congressional district to incumbent Major Owens, 45.4% to 28.9%, she ran again when Owens declined to seek reelection and won the September 12, 2006, Democratic primary with a plurality of 31.20% in a four-person field.
Clarke took her seat in the U.S. House in 2007 and represented the 11th district until redistricting moved her to the 9th district in 2013. In the 119th Congress she sits on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, where she is ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and she chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.
2026 race
New York's 9th congressional district is based in South and Central Brooklyn, including Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Midwood, and Borough Park, and Yvette Clarke won re-election there in 2024 with 74.3% of the vote.
In the 2026 Democratic primary she took 68.4% of the vote, defeating financial technology executive Michael Goldfarb, with 15.4%, and retail cashier and activist Joshua Bristol, with 14.9%; her strongest area was East Flatbush, where she lives.
In the general election on November 3, 2026, she faces Joel Anabilah-Azumah, a bus company owner and perennial candidate running on the Republican and Conservative Party lines.