Ohio's Marcy Kaptur will soon be the longest-serving woman, ever, in Congress

[Diamond_Dog]

WASHINGTON, D. C. – Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, 76, will make history when the 118th Congress convenes on January 3. She’ll become the longest-serving woman in congressional history, breaking a record previously held by former U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat.

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Republicans who controlled Ohio’s redistricting process for the last election tried to oust Kaptur by redrawing her congressional district to favor Republicans. Instead of the Democrat friendly district she’d held for the past decade - which stretched between Toledo and Cleveland along the Lake Erie shoreline – she had to seek reelection in a reshaped district that extends to Ohio’s western border. The new district, which favored former President Donald Trump by 3 points in 2020, includes all or parts of Erie, Sandusky, Ottawa, Lucas, Fulton, Williams and Defiance counties.

Despite the less favorable turf, Kaptur was able to win 56.6 percent of the vote against Trump-backed Republican J.R. Majewski of Port Clinton. It helped Kaptur that national Republicans abandoned Majewski’s campaign after an Associated Press report that he misrepresented his military service by claiming he’d been deployed to Afghanistan when he actually loaded planes in Qatar.

Kaptur’s campaign says she ran ahead of President Joe Biden’s margins by 8 to 11 points, including in rural counties that were new to the district. Her campaign focused on kitchen table issues, such as securing federal investments and well-paid jobs for the region, and described how seniority helped her steer valuable projects to Ohio, such as money to dredge harbors along Lake Erie, invest in the steel industry and Great Lakes shipbuilding.

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https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/11/ohios-marcy-kaptur-will-soon-be-the-longest-serving-woman-ever-in-congress.html

[Aristus]

1. Good for her.

I love the fact that she won in a district re-drawn specifically to favor the Republicans.

Here's to many more years in Congress!

[bottomofthehill]

2. An amazing Member of Congress.

She was one of those trapped in the House Gallery on 1/6. It would have been easy for her to call it a career with her long service to her constituents but instead she stayed to fight for her constituents.