The legacy members of Congress who finish the job of their relatives – Washington Examiner
The article discusses the phenomenon of legacy politicians in Congress, notably focusing on family members who step into political roles previously held by deceased relatives. It highlights the experiences of individuals like Erica Lee Carter, who took over her late mother Sheila Jackson Lee’s congressional seat, and Adelita Grijalva, who is running to replace her father Raul Grijalva after his death. The article emphasizes that while family dynasties are common in politics, the trend of women succeeding their husbands in political roles has evolved. Women are now more frequently running for office on their own merits, rather than merely stepping in after a spouse’s death.
The piece also notes that name recognition plays a meaningful role in elections, and while historically women may have relied on their deceased husbands to enter politics, women today are increasingly carving out their own legacies. Examples include Debbie Dingell, who succeeded her husband, and Julia Letlow, who made history as Louisiana’s first Republican woman in Congress after taking on her late husband’s role. the article suggests a shifting dynamic in political legacies, with a growing emphasis on personal achievements and contributions rather than solely familial connections.
Legacy members of Congress walk the halls to finish what they started, honor their memory
Washington, D.C., specializes in legacies. The monuments honoring past presidents, the heroes forever etched on street signs, and the last names that seem never to leave placards outside congressional offices as family members seek to honor their relatives’ memory and carry on their work with a new spin.
Over the last few years, there have been several instances of House members filling the shoes of relatives. This often occurs due to a death, leaving the new lawmaker to step into a new world of politics without the guidance or comfort of a loved one.
One of the most recent legacies is former Texas Democratic Rep. Erica Lee Carter. She finished the term of her mother, longtime Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), at the end of the 118th Congress. Jackson Lee served as the representative of Texas’s 18th District from 1995 until she died in July 2024 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Normally, Lee Carter would not have considered running for her mother’s seat, seeing firsthand as a teenager how serving in Washington away from loved ones affected both the family and the lawmakers themselves. She was also more interested in local public and community service, she told the Washington Examiner.
“But I also know my mother was a very strong finisher,” Lee Carter said. “She finished her legislation. She always showed up for constituents. And so when I was asked by many people that knew and loved her if I would consider running to finish her term, after deeply thinking, you know, I realized it was really the least I could do for her memory, her legacy.”
She decided not to seek the full term in the Eighth District, noting that there were good candidates in the mix and she didn’t want to disrupt the lives of her twins, who turn 10 in May. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-TX), who won the Eighth District’s full-term election in November, died in early March after only serving a few months, so the seat is now vacant again.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) also died from cancer after winning his 12th term in Arizona’s Seventh District. His daughter, Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, is running to replace him and finish his term.
She told the Arizona Luminaria when announcing her candidacy that her father was “unapologetic and unafraid” of his liberal values, and she wants to continue working on his agenda in his honor.
“I want to run for Congress because this community, Southern Arizona, deserves the bold leadership that they’ve had with my dad for the last 22 years,” Adelita Grijalva told the Tucson Sentinel.
Women once relied on deceased husbands to enter politics. Now it’s the ‘exception to the rule’
Name recognition plays a significant role in elections, particularly when a longtime lawmaker passes away or retires from the political scene. This offers a chance to bring fresh blood to the halls of Congress while also keeping the seat within the family.
In 2014, the Washington Post found that 13.5% of senators and 7.7% of representatives come from dynastic families. The analysis found that female legislators are nearly three times as likely to come from dynastic families than men, 31.2% to 8.4 %, respectively.
According to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics, 48 women have been appointed or elected to fill vacancies in Congress created when their husbands died. Debbie Walsh, director of the center, told the Washington Examiner that this was a key path for women to enter politics a century ago. However, the trend of women succeeding their husbands has evolved.
“Women have used that position when they come through the passing of their husbands in different ways, but it really is more unusual now,” Walsh said. “Some of the women come in, and if you look at them, you can see that they only served for a year or finished out a term, but as a result of the special election. But then there are the women who went on to serve for quite a long time.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) is the only woman in recent history to succeed a living husband. She succeeded Rep. John Dingell, who holds the record for the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
John served in the House from 1955 until he retired in 2015, serving Michigan’s 12th District. Rep. Dingell successfully ran to succeed him in the 2014 elections. After redistricting, she now serves Michigan’s Sixth District and continues to do trailblazing work in conservation and women’s healthcare. Her husband died in 2019 after she had served for over two terms.
Rep. Julia Letlow’s (R-LA) ascension into politics was a different experience compared to Dingell’s. She made history as the first Republican woman to be elected to represent Louisiana in Congress after winning a 12-person special election. But the achievement was bittersweet, as she succeeded her late husband, Luke, in a seat he won in the 2020 elections but never got to fill.
Luke Letlow died from complications from COVID-19 in December 2020, weeks after winning a runoff election and days before he was set to be sworn into office. Rep. Letlow had campaigned with her husband, getting to know the district’s concerns and wishes. She has strongly advocated higher education throughout her time in the House.
Like in Rep. Letlow’s case, Walsh said name recognition and carrying on a legacy can be important. But times have changed, she said, and many of those women have served long periods in Congress, making their own legacy.
One example Walsh pointed to is Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA). Her husband, longtime Rep. Robert Matsui, died in 2005 from pneumonia. She was considered the most viable candidate for the job. In the 20 years she has served on Capitol Hill, Matsui has done incredible work on the Energy and Commerce Committee and was instrumental in crafting the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s now the absolute exception to the rule of how women get into office,” Walsh said of women succeeding their husbands. “It used to be that was the rule, and the women who got elected in their own right were more of the exceptions.”
“Women now run on their own merits,” Walsh added.
Family legacies stretch across chambers
Other legacies come in the form of parent-and-child successions, most recently with Lee Carter and potentially Adelita Grijalva.
Before serving in the Senate, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) served as a House lawmaker. She is the daughter of the late Rep. Arch Moore (R-WV), who served from 1957 to 1968 in the House. The West Virginia senator’s nephew, Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV), now serves in the same Second District his aunt held from 2001 to 2015.
Some legacies have served in Congress together. Disgraced former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) served from 2006 to 2024. He overlapped with his son, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), for two years before the elder Menendez resigned from office after his conviction in a federal corruption case.
Other lawmakers followed in their fathers’ footsteps. A famous father-son duo is that of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and his father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Rep. Paul, a Libertarian, served from 1976 until 1977 and then again from 1979 to 2013. His son became Kentucky’s junior senator in 2011.
Some legacies are a pair of siblings looking to change the world. Former Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and former Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) overlapped in Congress for 32 years, telling the Detroit News they spoke nearly every day. Carl retired from the Senate in 2015 and died in 2021. Sander, 90, retired from the House in 2019 and has stayed involved in current political affairs.
For many of these lawmakers, watching a parent, sibling, or spouse serve in Congress helped prepare them for the life of national politics. Lee Carter said her mother was “very strong in her beliefs” and “didn’t let the winds of change or time sway her opinion.”
“So that had a heavy influence on me … when I believe what I’m going to support, I go all the way with it. I don’t change to fit in with what’s popular. She was never concerned with being popular,” Lee Carter said of Jackson Lee.
Lee Carter “delayed” time to mourn her mother due to running for office, another burden of entering the political sphere. She noted that she was “definitely locked into achieving the goal and serving.” She said she hopes her service inspires other daughters to run for office and shows that you “don’t have to rest on a legacy.”
DAUGHTER OF LATE ARIZONA REP. GRIJALVA RUNNING FOR VACANT HOUSE SEAT
“You can start creating your own path,” Lee Carter said. “And then I closed the circle. I helped understand it. [It h]elped me understand my mother better, why she worked so hard, and what it was all for.”
“I hope I made her proud.”
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