Jenniffer González

González was first elected to the House of Representatives in a special election held on February 24, 2002, to fill the vacancy left by former House Speaker Edison Misla Aldarondo, after his resignation as Representative from San Juan's 4th District. She was the first female elected representative of San Juan's Fourth District, the youngest member of the 14th Legislative Assembly, and the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly. Before being elected as Representative, González served as Chairwoman of the San Juan New Progressive Party Youth Organization and was very active in the Pro-Statehood Students movement while attending college.

González was re-elected in the 2004 Puerto Rico general elections, this time as an At-Large Representative. She served as Chairwoman of the House Government Affairs Committee, and as ranking member of the Budget, San Juan Development, Women's Affairs, and Internal Affairs Committees, as well as the Joint Commission for the Revision of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico.

González was re-elected for another term at the 2008 Puerto Rico general elections obtaining the most votes from her party, and the second most votes overall.[8] At the age of 32, she was elected House Speaker by members of her New Party for Progress delegation during a caucus held on November 7, 2008. González defeated incumbent House Speaker José Aponte Hernández in his bid for re-election to that post, becoming the youngest person in Puerto Rican history to be elected Speaker of the House, and the third woman to hold that seat.

In November 2015, González was unanimously elected as Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico after being the party's Vice-Chair for eight years. She succeeded Aguadilla mayor Carlos Méndez in the position that once was held by former Governor Don Luis A. Ferré, founder of the New Progressive Party and Dr. Jose Celso Barbosa the founder of both the Republican Party and the statehood movement in Puerto Rico.[9][10] During the 2020 Republican National Convention, she was unable to travel to the Convention venue, due to the fact that she was in self-quarantine, having tested positive to the novel coronavirus or COVID-19. She delegated her role of delegation chair at the 2020 convention in Kevin Romero, who became the youngest delegation chair and roll call participant in 2020.

In 2012, González was again re-elected this time gathering the most votes overall, despite the fact that her party lost the majority of seats.[11] The same night of the election, she was selected as Minority Leader of her party.[12]

On September 14, 2015, González announced her candidacy to succeed Pedro Pierluisi as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. Six days later, one of Pierluisi's rivals for the gubernatorial nomination, Ricardo Rosselló, agreed with her to become running mates for the June 5, 2016, primary and the November 8, 2016, general election. During the ten months the primary race lasted, various public opinion polls consistently showed González to have over 70% approval ratings of the electorate, making her the most popular politician of any political party on the Island.

On June 5, 2016 González won the NPP primary by a landslide margin of 70.54% of the vote[13] over her opponent Carlos Pesquera. She thus became the first woman in the history of the New Progressive Party to be nominated to the Resident Commissioner seat in Congress for the November general election.

On November 8, 2016, González was elected Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, with 48.77% of the vote, over her main opponent, the late Héctor Ferrer of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico,[14] thus becoming the first woman and youngest person to represent Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress since the creation of the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico seat 116 years prior in 1900.

So far in her time in Congress, González has focused on sponsoring or cosponsoring bills related to veterans affairs, health relief and tax relief for Puerto Rico.[15][16][17] Congresswoman González is a member of the Republican Conference House Policy Committee. She is also a member of the House Committees on Natural Resources, Veterans’ Affairs, and Small Business, Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs, member of Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and Co-Chair of the Congressional Friends of Spain Caucus.[18]

During her first two years in Congress, Rep. González-Colón spent a great deal of time and effort on efforts related to hurricane recovery after Hurricanes Irma and María. This included participating in multiple House and Senate trips to Puerto Rico and joining the President on Air Force One during his 2017 official visit to view the hurricanes' damage to Puerto Rico.

For the 116th Congress, González has served in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Committee on Natural Resources.[19] From 2019 on she has continued focusing in disaster recovery issues, first for damage caused by the hurricanes and, in 2020, for damages caused, especially in the south and southeastern regions of Puerto Rico, by an earthquake on January 7, 2020 and hundreds of tremors generated since then.

• Committee on Natural Resources (Vice Ranking Member for Insular Affairs)
  • Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
• Committee on Small Buissness
  • Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access
  • Subcommittee on Health and Technology
• Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Health
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation

• Republican Main Street Partnership[20]
• House Baltic Caucus,[21]
• Congressional Western Caucus,[22]
• Climate Solutions Caucus.[23]
• Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus (Co-Chair).[24]
• Tuesday Group [25]