Since 1987, we have dedicated the month of March to focusing the nation’s attention on the significant — and oftentimes overlooked — contributions of women to the making of this country’s greatness. We highlight sports figures who make extraordinary achievements in various fields of competition. We honor those who are the first to break barriers, especially the ones who smash through the glass ceilings that exist in so many walks of life. We highlight the history makers, especially those whose contributions are in the field of public service.
We remember Barbara Jordan, Dorothy Height, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisolm, Geraldine Ferraro, Janet Reno, Madeleine Albright, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, and many others.
We celebrate strong political women such as Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House; Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown, two Supreme Court justices; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and Vice President Kamala Harris.
We highlight Lauren Underwood, the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress who also co-chairs the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. In Ohio politics, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, Joyce Beatty, Shontel Brown and Emilia Sykes are names that come up in conversations.
But the one I am personally celebrating here is Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who is the longest-serving woman in Congress. That is reason enough to elevate her into the highest echelon of our national history. But there’s more — lots more — that people should know.
Born to working-class parents in Toledo, she was the first in her family to go to college, graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1968. She earned her master’s degree and pursued doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Not bad for a Polish-American kid from Toledo.
But Kaptur didn’t stop there. She went on to sit on the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commission, worked as planning director for the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, and served as a domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter. When they recruited her to challenge incumbent Republican Congressman Ed Weber in 1981 for Ohio’s 9th District, she not only challenged him — but won. Weber outspent her campaign, 3 to 1, and yet she won, 58-39 percent.
She won because Kaptur was fighting for working-class folks. She hasn’t stopped. From standing up against the former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to fighting bailouts of big banks and promoting a reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to provide the necessary banking reforms to prevent another subprime mortgage crisis, she has spent more than four decades speaking out for folks who work, every day, for an American Dream that seems to drift further and further away for some people.
With major legislation such as the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the PACT Act, Kaptur has continued to stand in the gap when necessary. What’s more, she has been a relentless voice dedicated to protecting natural resources and the environment, particularly the Great Lakes.
Kaptur knows what it’s like to grow up in America’s heartland. Her mother organized auto workers and her father ran a small family grocery. She may not always behave as expected — she’s sometimes called “Marcy the Misbehaver”— but she learned early on that she had to work harder, smarter and sometimes longer to make progress, not only when growing up but also in her adult years in Congress.
It’s often said that “well-behaved women rarely make history.” Marcy Kaptur isn’t interested in just smiling for the camera. She doesn’t mince words. She doesn’t tap dance around tough issues, and she doesn’t always wait her turn.
To her, people matter, not necessarily the party. That’s what inspires and motivates her. She believes that everyone deserves dignity and respect; that an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay; that you say what’s on your mind and your word is your bond. Kaptur strikes me as an American woman who truly wants to make a difference. If that’s “misbehavior,” we need more of it.
Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on Twitter @antjuansea.