Lisa Blunt Rochester

Lisa LaTrelle Blunt Rochester (née Blunt; February 10, 1962) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district since 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Blunt Rochester was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 10, 1962. Her family moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1969. Her father, Ted Blunt, served on the Wilmington City Council, including as council president. Her mother, Alice LaTrelle, worked in retail.

Blunt Rochester attended Padua Academy, began college at Villanova University, and later transferred to the University of Delaware in her sophomore year. She left college to live in Europe, and later received her bachelor's degree in international relations from Fairleigh Dickinson University and her master's degree in urban affairs and public policy from the University of Delaware.

Blunt Rochester worked for Tom Carper as an intern in 1989, when he served as Delaware's U.S. Representative. After the internship, she continued to work for Carper as a constituent relations caseworker, and worked on his transition team when he was elected governor of Delaware. Carper appointed her deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services in 1993 and Secretary of the Department of Labor in 1998. Governor Ruth Ann Minner named Blunt Rochester the state personnel director in 2001.

In 2004, Blunt Rochester left government service and became the CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.

Elections

Blunt Rochester ran for the United States House of Representatives in Delaware's at-large congressional district in the 2016 election. She won the Democratic Party nomination on September 13 and the general election against Republican Hans Reigle on November 8. When she was sworn into office on January 3, 2017, she became the first woman and the first African-American to represent Delaware in Congress.

Tenure

On December 18, 2019, Blunt Rochester voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research
  • Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
  • Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition

In March 2020, Joe Biden's presidential campaign named Blunt Rochester as one of its co-chairs. At the end of April, Blunt Rochester was named a member of the vetting committee for Biden's vice presidential candidate selection.

Blunt Rochester was married to her first husband, basketball player Alex Bradley, from 1982 to 2003. They met at Villanova and lived in Europe while he played basketball professionally. They have two children together. She met her second husband, Charles, later in 2003. They married in 2006. Charles died in 2014. He ruptured his Achilles tendon which caused blood clots to go to his heart and lungs.

While living abroad in China with her late husband, Blunt Rochester co-authored the book THRIVE: 34 Women, 18 Countries, One Goal.

She carries a scarf printed with a Reconstruction Era voter registration card belonging to an ancestor who was a slave.