Representative Niki Tsongas spoke during a news conference in May on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
US Representative Niki Tsongas said Wednesday that she would not seek another term after representing her Lowell-based district for a decade, an unexpected move that will leave a rare open seat in the states congressional delegation.
Tsongas, 71, who had shown all signs of running in 2018, said it was a time for her to retire from public life and enjoy her children and grandchildren.
Advertisement
Her decision stunned political insiders, potential successors who have been waiting for years for an open congressional seat, and even her close political colleagues in the district. It also ripped up the political premise that the states 2018 congressional races would hardly be noticed, setting off a rush of speculation about who would succeed her.
For Tsongas, it was clearly a very personal decision that she shared with very few.
Get Political Happy Hour in your inbox:
Your afternoon shot of politics, sent straight from the desk of Joshua Miller.
I have learned in life that there is a time for endings and for new beginnings, she said in a statement.
Niki Tsongas announced on Wednesday that she wont seek another term in Congress.
After much thought, I have decided that this is one of those times.The time feels right most especially because of my desire to spend more time enjoying and celebrating my wonderful and growing family, she said.
The Lowell Democrat was elected to the seat that was being vacated in 2007 by then-US Representative Marty Meehan, who served 14 years in Congress.
Advertisement
Tsongas serves on the US House Armed Services Committee, where she has made a reputation working on sexual abuse and veterans issues.
I am particularly very proud of the work we did challenging the sexual assault issues in the military, she said in a phone interview.
Meehan, now the president of the University of Massachusettts, said Tsongas work on the committeee had produced profound changes in the culture that women face in the armed services.
It was not just assault but the whole culture that she changed, he said.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren,in a tweet, praised Tsongas as a fighter who served as a model for her.
Congresswoman Niki Tsongas is more than my colleague shes a mentor and a friend, Warren wrote. She has shown me how tough women fight for families in Massachusetts and across this country.
Her decision in 2007 to enter elective politics had roots in her marriage to one of the states leading political figures. Her late husband, Paul Tsongas, a former Lowell city councilor and Middlesex County commissioner, held the seat for two terms after his election in 1974 and is credited with leading the efforts to revitalize his native city. He later went on to serve one term in the US Senate and ran a strong but unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992.
His election ended the GOPs decades-long grip on the district and marked the beginning of the election of a series of liberal Democrats, including Niki Tsongas herself.
But what was for decades the Fifth District and is now labeled the Third District since redistricting in 2012 has changed around its edges, creating less of a liberal tilt to the seat.
In the future, said Dan Payne, a Democratic media consultant who has advised candidates in that district, that district is very unlikely to elect someone as liberal as Tsongas.
But the Third District favors Democrats overall, choosing that partys presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, in last years presidential race with 57 percent of the vote over Donald Trumps 35 percent.
It currently runs along the New Hampshire border, from Haverhill, through Lowell and Lawrence to Fitchburg, Gardner, and Winchendon, stretching south to Marlborough and Hudson while also taking in the southern Middlesex County towns of Wayland, Acton, and Concord.
Tsongas unexpected move is much like what her husband did in 1984 when, in one of the most dramatic political events the state has seen in decades, he announced he would not run for a second six-year Senate term. He had been diagnosed with lymphoma. He died in 1997 from complications from cancer treatments.
Meehan said Paul Tsongas would have been extremely proud of his wifes tenure in the job he had held for four years work that included helping the urban communities in the district on economic development issues and looking after the interests of the Massachusetts companies that dominate the defense industry.
Serving in this district demands a very high standard that was set by Paul Tsongas, Meehan said. Niki exceeded that high standard and I know Paul would be very proud of her service.
In her statement, Tsongas described her time in office as a heartfelt honor ... guided all along by an extraordinary role model in my late husband Paul.
She also said she felt proud that her 2007 election marked the first time Massachusetts had sent a woman to Congress in 25 years.
Since that door cracked open, the Commonwealth has elected another female member of Congress, our first female US Senator, and in my district, 50% of our state legislators are now women, paving the way for even more women from our state to serve in political office bringing their voices to all we value as a country, Tsongas said.
The Third District was the venue for one of the states most famous congressional races when a decorated Vietnam veteran, John F. Kerry, won the Democratic nomination in a crowded field, only to lose the general election to a former Republican legislator from Andover who had lost his seat two years earlier.
His antiwar position had made Kerry a national figure, but his move into the district to seek a congressional seat created deep resentment among local Democrats.
The loss sent Kerry, who was shattered by the experience, into the political wilderness until he won an election to be lieutenant governor in 1982 and then ran successfully for the US Senate seat that Paul Tsongas vacated.
More here:
Lowell Democrat Niki Tsongas won't seek another term in Congress - The Boston Globe