Margaret Mary Heckler (née O'Shaughnessy; June 21, 1931 – August 6, 2018) was an American politician and diplomat who represented in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983. A member of the Republican Party, she also served as the 15th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1983 to 1985, as well as United States ambassador to Ireland from 1986 to 1989.
Early life
She was born Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy in Flushing, New York. Her undergraduate studies began at Albertus Magnus in New Haven, Connecticut. She then studied abroad at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands, in 1952 and went on to graduate from Albertus Magnus College (B.A. 1953) and from Boston College Law School (LL.B. 1956). She was the only woman in her law school class. She was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts. She was an editor of the Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law.
From 1963 to 1967, Heckler was the first woman to serve on the Governor's council for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1964 and 1968, and was elected as a Republican from the 90th to the 97th Congresses (January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1983).
Heckler received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University in 1975.
Congressional career
In Congress, Heckler was generally regarded as a "Rockefeller Republican" who supported moderate to liberal policies favored by voters in her state. Heckler voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In 1977, she launched and founded the idea of the Congresswoman's Caucus, a bipartisan group of 14 members focused on equality for women in Social Security, tax laws, and related areas. Heckler was also an outspoken advocate for and cosponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment. She opposed abortion but then did not favor a constitutional amendment to ban it. Later in life, however, Heckler became a speaker and anti-abortion activist.
In Massachusetts, she was noted for building an especially-effective network of constituent services that allowed her to breeze through several re-election bids in an overwhelmingly-Democratic state. In the capital, Heckler was noted as a socialite with a penchant for high fashion.
In the House, she served on the Banking and Currency Committee as well as ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee (1975–1983). She also served as ranking member of the House Beauty Shop Committee (1971–1979), replacing Representative Catherine May, who had been defeated for re-election.
Electoral history
Heckler won her first term in 1966 by defeating 42-year incumbent Republican Joseph W. Martin Jr., in the primary. Martin, then 82, had previously served as Speaker of the House and was 46 years older than Heckler. Heckler won the subsequent general election with just 51 percent of the votes but was easily re-elected thereafter.
Following the 1980 census, Massachusetts lost one of its congressional seats because of its population growth. Heckler's district, then the only one in Massachusetts large enough to not need redistricting, was combined with that of freshman Democratic Representative Barney Frank. The district was numerically Frank's district, the 4th, but it was geographically more Heckler's district. When both ran against each other in 1982, Heckler began the race as a frontrunner. Although she opposed Reagan on 43 percent of House votes, Frank successfully portrayed Heckler as a Reagan ally by pointing to her early support for his tax cuts, which she later retracted. She lost the support of the National Organization for Women because she opposed federal funding for abortion. She went on to lose the race by a larger-than-expected margin of 20%. After her defeat, no woman would be elected to Congress from Massachusetts until Niki Tsongas won a special election in 2007.
Health and Human Services Secretary
After her defeat, Heckler turned down several government jobs, including as an assistant NASA administrator, before Reagan nominated her to replace retiring Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Schweiker in January 1983. She was confirmed on March 3, 1983 by an 82-3 vote in the Senate. All three dissenters were conservative Republicans.