Heerma studied
political science at the
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam from 1995 to 2001, with a specialisation in
political communication. From 1999 tot 2001 he was a student assistant at Amsterdam School of Communication Research/ASCoR of the
University of Amsterdam and the
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies researching the
Srebrenica massacre. From 2002 to 2007 he was a spokesperson and press officer of the CDA
parliamentary group in the House of Representatives; from 2007 to 2011 he was its head of press information. From 2011 to 2012 he was head of
corporate communication of the
health insurance company De Friesland Zorgverzekeraar. Heerma was CDA campaign leader for the
general election of 2012. He became a member of the
House of Representatives on 20 September 2012. Heerma was elected parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal in the House of Representatives on 21 May 2019, following the nomination of
Sybrand van Haersma Buma as
Mayor of Leeuwarden. He remained parliamentary leader until the end of the 20172021 parliamentary term. For most of the 20212023 term he held the office again. He did not run for reelection to a fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives in
2023. In 2026 he was appointed
Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations in the newly-installed
cabinet of Prime Minister
Rob Jetten. == Personal life ==