Andy Harris

The son of immigrants who fled communist Eastern Europe immediately after World War II, Dr. Andy Harris was as a physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a medical officer in the Naval Reserve, and a state senator before coming to Congress.

Born in Brooklyn in 1957, he studied medicine at Hopkins, where he continued to practice as an anesthesiologist for nearly three decades. Andy specialized in obstetric anesthesiology. Andy still practices part-time out of Memorial Hospital in Easton, Maryland.

In 1988, Andy answered a recruitment call to fill a critical need for anesthesiologists in the Naval Reserve during the Reagan administration. He went on to establish and command The Johns Hopkins Medical Naval Reserve Unit.  In 1990, his unit was called up to active duty in order to assist with Operation Desert Shield (and later Operation Desert Storm) at Bethesda Naval Hospital.  Harris attained the rank of Commander (O-5) before leaving the Reserves after seventeen years.

Unhappy with the status quo in Annapolis, Andy decided to take on the establishment and run for the Maryland State Senate in 1998, where he served for 12 years.  Maryland’s First Congressional District first elected Andy to serve in the House of Representatives in 2010. He serves on the Committee on Appropriations and on the following subcommittees: Agriculture; and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.