Women can be elected to Congress after the death or resignation of their husband
California Democrat Loretta Sanchez was elected to the House of Representatives in 1997, and in 2003 her sister Linda, who still sits in Congress, was also elected from another district. Loretta Sanchez tried to be elected to the Senate in 2017, but lost to Kamala Harris. And former Vice President Mike Pence, who represented Indiana in the lower house of Congress from 2001 to 2013, has a brother, Greg, who was elected there in 2019.
For much of the 20th century, the easiest way for a woman to get elected to Congress was to take the place of her dead husband. Of the 95 women elected to Congress before 1976, 35 were widows of former congressmen, and between 1916 and 1993, 84 percent of first-time congresswomen took their husband's seats. Of the 125 women in the current House of Representatives, 3 represent districts where their husbands were previously elected. Democrat Doris Matsuri has represented the district in California since 2005 that her husband Bob was elected from in 1977 until his death. Republican Julia Letlow was elected to replace her husband Luke in Louisiana because he died of Covid in 2020 before he could even take his seat. Democrat Debbie Dingell has represented one of Michigan's districts since 2014 after the resignation of her husband John Dingell, who served as congressman for 60 years (from 1955 to 2015). Before that, the district was represented by his father, John Dingell Sr. (from 1933 to 1955). Collectively, the Dingell dynasty has been sitting in Congress for 90 years. Another 35 congressmen had close relatives in various positions in the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government at the federal and state levels;
All this, of course, does not mean that your political relatives guarantee your election. In 2022, Democrat Deb McGrath lost the party primary in the district once represented by her father Al Baldus. And in Washington, Republican Reagan Dahn similarly lost the primary in his mother Jennifer's former district. Pierce Bush also failed to make it in the district where his grandfather George H. W. Bush was previously elected. And in Michigan, after the death of Democratic Congressman John Conyers, two relatives, son John and great-nephew Ian, applied for his place, but both lost. In addition, in 2022, three widows of deceased congressmen (in Texas, Minnesota and Maryland) were unable to take their place, having lost primaries or general elections.
Author: Yan Veselov
