Ohio congresswoman sets mark for longest tenure by female
TOLEDO, Ohio — The longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. House, Marcy Kaptur, still returns from Washington most weekends to the modest single-story home where she grew up in Toledo.
How the 71-year-old Democrat, a daughter of two factory workers, has managed to stay in office so long can be linked to an unwavering connection to her working-class roots.
Now in the House just over 35 years, Kaptur set the mark last week for the longest tenure by a woman — surpassing Edith Nourse Rogers, a Massachusetts Republican who served until her death in 1960.
“It sounds like a lot of time until you’ve done it, and then it seems like a wink,” Kaptur said Friday.