TOLEDO, Ohio – The longest-serving woman in the history of Congress is from Ohio, and she’s still in office.
Toledo Democrat Marcy Kaptur earned the title this past January, as she started her 40th year in the U.S. House of Representatives.
To better understand Representative Kaptur, it’s helpful to start at her home, where she was raised and still lives to this very day.
“This is the house I grew up in, yes,” she told Spectrum News during a tour of her hometown last week.
Kaptur said staying rooted in the same humble home, on the same street, throughout her career has been insightful.
“The good thing about it is you really can experience change and I think it makes you more attuned to what’s happening in the world. Where people move. Who moves in,” she said.
The 76-year-old has Toledo in her blood. Her mother was a union organizer at the local spark plug factory and her father ran a corner grocery store.
Kaptur takes great pride in having represented the region for the last 40 years in Congress.
She achieved the milestone of becoming the longest-serving in January, but the news was dwarfed by the chaotic marathon vote for House Speaker.
“It's hard to have time to reflect in this job because you're always at the tip of the spear, you're always trying to make things happen,” Kaptur said during a sit-down interview in her district office.
Inside the office, which overlooks the Maumee River, Kaptur pulled out a map to provide some geographical history and point out projects she has helped secure federal funding for over the years.
Soon after, she personally gave Spectrum News an almost three-hour driving tour of Greater Toledo.
“We’ve begun to repurpose,” Kaptur said at one point during the drive.
Block after block, she could point out a legacy or a vision for how the federal government can help.
The Veterans’ Glass City Skyway Bridge took her 16 years to get funded and built.
Several minutes away from it, a new federal courthouse is currently under construction.
“Named in honor of my predecessor,” Kaptur mentioned.
Throughout the drive, she possessed a seemingly endless mental log of what’s been improved and what still needed work.
“And we’re fighting for some federal money to help us improve more,” Kaptur said.
First elected to Congress in 1982 at the age of 36, Kaptur entered elected office after spending years as a city planner and as an urban advisor to President Jimmy Carter.
During the drive through Toledo, Kaptur said she was inspired in high school by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, which included the famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
“That phrase stuck with me,” Kaptur said. “What can I do to help my country?”
She was one of just 24 women in Congress when she got sworn-in. Today, that number stands at over 150.
In the 1990s, Kaptur even wrote a book about women in Congress.
“Our generation, post-World War II, was the first one where a woman could choose – she wasn't set in a role culturally, exactly, but she could follow her own interests,” she said. “And I think I'm an example of that kind of a woman.”
Kaptur has never married and has no children. She said it didn’t seem possible to balance a family life with pursuing elected office when she got started in politics – something that’s now more common.
Her beloved brother, Steve, lived with her in their childhood home until he died in 2020. Kaptur is a devout Catholic and enjoys gardening.
Does she feel like her work as a lawmaker has become her life’s mission?
“I feel I was called to this. I don't know why. But I know I'm doing the job I was meant to do,” Kaptur said.
In Washington, Kaptur is known as a policy wonk who is constantly trying to get more attention paid to the Midwest in a Congress that has long been dominated by leadership from the coasts.
She spent her first decade in office working to get on the powerful Appropriations Committee that decides how tax dollars are spent.
She also played a leading role in getting the World War II Memorial built on the National Mall, after a constituent raised the idea. It took almost two decades to complete.
“That's when I ‘grew up’ in Congress,” Kaptur said. “Because it's something the American people wanted. We started in 1987. We did not dedicate until 2004. I thought, what the heck is this all about?”
In the early 1990s, Kaptur gained notoriety in Washington for being a vocal critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
She was worried it would harm Toledo’s auto industry, so she voted against it. But the bill became law.
“And that was one moment, 1993, when I didn't know if I could continue,” Kaptur said. “Because I knew what would happen, and it did. But I thought if I leave, who's left to argue for our people? And I don't know, you just get like a steel down your spine. And you stay because others didn't.”
Her position on trade prompted independent presidential candidate Ross Perot to ask her to be his running mate in the 90s, but Kaptur decided to stay in the House, fighting specifically for greater Toledo.
“That’s one reason I like the House. Because I’d be close to people and I know them and we work together,” she said during the drive around the city.
Today, Kaptur is still on the Appropriations Committee. She serves as the top Democrat on the subcommittee on energy and water – her two biggest worries are power systems and water development.
Kaptur said she has no intention of retiring anytime soon. She feels her hard-earned seniority is valuable.
“When I was sworn-in, and I started serving, there was just this moment, I said, ‘I'm in the right place. I know I'm in the right place,’” she said.
Forty years in, Kaptur still seems to enjoy the job, despite being frustrated by the growing amount of money in politics and the waning influence of committees.
The prospects of improving her region, like the city planner she once was, keeps her going.
“Despite all the impediments that are put in your way in Washington, when you come back in your district, and somebody says thank you, that’s the best gift they could give me. And that we did it together,” Kaptur said.