Marjorie Margolies (;
formerly Margolies-Mezvinsky; born June 21, 1942) is a fellow at the
University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government, an
adjunct faculty member at the
University of Pennsylvania, and a
women's rights activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
. She is a former
journalist and a
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
politician. From 1993 to 1995, she was a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives, representing
Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.
Margolies cast the deciding vote in favor of President
Bill Clinton’s
1993 budget proposal.
Early life, education, and journalism career
Margolies was born in
Philadelphia. She graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1963.
She was a broadcast journalist for over twenty-four years, winning five
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for her work.
She worked as a television journalist at
WCAU-TV from 1967 to 1969, was a CBS News Foundation Fellow,
Columbia University from 1969 to 1970,
and then worked for
WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990.
She was also a correspondent for the ''
Today Show''.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 1992 she ran for an open seat in Congress for
Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, a largely suburban district outside Philadelphia which Republicans had held since 1916. She defeated Bernard Tomkin in the Democratic primary, 79%-21%. In the general election, she defeated Republican State Representative
Jon D. Fox
Jon D. Fox (April 22, 1947 – February 11, 2018) was an American Republican politician. He served as a member of Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1985 to 1992 before being elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners (1992- ...
by a margin of 0.5%, or a difference of 1,373 votes.
In 1994, she lost re-election to Fox in a rematch, 49%-45%, a difference of 8,181 votes. She was one of 54 Democratic incumbents who were defeated in the
Republican Revolution
The "Republican Revolution", "Revolution of '94", or "Gingrich Revolution" are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. mid-term elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House of ...
.
Tenure
Margolies served on the bipartisan Deficit Reduction Task Force. In 1994, she completed ''A Woman's Place'', a book with the other women in the class of 1992.
Many of her votes cost her re-election bid in 1994. One vote was for President
Bill Clinton's controversial
1993 budget, for which she was the deciding vote. She had opposed the bill, until the President called her. House Democrats cheered as the House Republicans jeered, "Goodbye Marjorie!" In a 2009 interview with ''
The Daily Beast'', she recalled U.S. Congressman
Robert Walker (R-Pennsylvania) in particular joining in the Republican jeers. She also recalled the ire of her constituents resulting from her vote, saying "when I went to town-hall meetings, I had to be escorted by the police....I was just surprised at the level of divisiveness and immaturity."
After a
health care reform bill passed
the House in November 2009, the conservative
Americans for Tax Reform featured her 1994 defeat as an example of what could occur in
the 2010 midterm elections because of one particular vote to those Democrats in swing districts who voted in favor of that health care reform bill. Margolies, however, wrote in ''The Washington Post'' that she was glad that she had cast her vote as she had, and urged vulnerable Democrats in Congress to vote for the
healthcare bill in March 2010.
Political activism
After her term in Congress, Margolies was the chair of the National Women’s Business Council, and the director and deputy chair of the United States delegation to the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
Margolies serves as the founder and chair of Women’s Campaign International (WCI), a group that provides advocacy training for women throughout the world. She is also an adjunct professor at the
Fels Institute of Government at the
University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she sits on the board of directors of the
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. that addresses federal budget and fiscal issues. It was founded in 1981 by former United States Representatives Robert Gia ...
.
Political campaigns
1998 gubernatorial election
In 1998, Margolies ran for
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. She won the Democratic primary election with 53% of the vote, defeating two other candidates. She became the running mate for State Representative
Ivan Itkin
Ivan Itkin (March 29, 1936 – April 5, 2020) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1973 to 1998. He was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1998.
Earl ...
. The ticket lost to Republicans
Tom Ridge and
Mark Schweiker, 57%-31%.
2000 congressional election and bankruptcy
In 2000, Margolies decided to run for U.S. Senate for the seat held by Republican
Rick Santorum. Ultimately, she withdrew from the race after experiencing disappointing fundraising results; in addition, her mother was ill and her husband had legal troubles that resulted in several convictions for fraud. Shortly thereafter, she filed for
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
, but failed to receive a discharge from her debts, based on 11 U.S.C. §727(a)(5). The court found Mezvinsky had failed to satisfactorily explain a significant loss of assets in the four years prior to her bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy judge stated, in her published opinion, "I find that the Debtor has failed to satisfactorily explain the loss of approximately $775,000 worth of assets (the difference between the $810,000 represented in May 1996 and the $35,000 now claimed in her Amended Schedule B)." Sonders v. Mezvinsky (in re Mezvinsky), 265 B.R. 681, 694 (Bankr. E.D. Pa. 2001).
2014 congressional election
In May 2013, Margolies filed paperwork to run in the Democratic congressional primary in her former district in 2014. She ran to replace Rep.
Allyson Schwartz
Allyson Schwartz (née Young; born October 3, 1948) is an American Democratic Party politician who represented parts of Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2015 and Northeast and ...
(D-Penn.), who
ran for Governor of Pennsylvania
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in 2014. The other Democrats in the race were state Rep.
Brendan Boyle of
Northeast Philadelphia; state Senator
Daylin Leach of
Montgomery County Montgomery County may refer to:
Australia
* The former name of Montgomery Land District, Tasmania
United Kingdom
* The historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, also called County of Montgomery
United States
* Montgomery County, Alabama
* Mon ...
; and Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, a professor at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. State Rep.
Mark B. Cohen of
Philadelphia and former City Controller
Jonathan Saidel filed to run, but later withdrew.
On May 17, 2014,
Hillary Clinton held her first fundraiser of the year for Margolies's congressional campaign.
On May 20, 2014, Margolies lost the primary election to Boyle.
Personal life
Margolies married
Edward Mezvinsky
Edward Maurice Mezvinsky (; born January 17, 1937) is an American politician and lawyer from Iowa. He is a former U.S. Representative and felon. A Democrat, he represented Iowa's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives ...
of Iowa in 1975;
they divorced in 2007.
During their marriage, she was known as Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky. They had 11 children altogether, four from his first marriage, two she adopted on her own, two sons they had together, and three children they adopted together. In 1970, Margolies adopted a daughter from Korea; this was reportedly the first time an unmarried American woman had adopted a foreign child.
From their 11 children, the Mezvinskys have 18 grandchildren as of 2014.
Marc Mezvinsky
Marc Mezvinsky (born December 10, 1977) is an American investor and managing director at TPG Inc., TPG. He has served previously as vice chairman at Social Capital (venture capital), Social Capital. He is the husband of Chelsea Clinton, daughter ...
, one of Margolies's sons with Edward Mezvinsky, married
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former
U.S. President Bill Clinton and former
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The wedding took place on July 31, 2010, in
Rhinebeck, New York
Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie– ...
.
Works
* ''They Came to Stay'', Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1976
* ''Finding someone to love'', Playboy Press Paperbacks, 1980,
* ''The Girls in the Newsroom'', Charter Communications, Inc., 1983,
* ''A woman's place: the freshman women who changed the face of Congress'', Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, Barbara Feinman, Crown Publishers, 1994,
* ''And How Are the Children? Timeless Lessons from the Frontlines of Motherhood'' (memoir),
Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2021,
See also
*
List of Jewish members of the United States Congress
This is a list of Jewish members of the United States Congress. , there are 10 Jewish senators and 27 Jewish members of the House of Representatives serving in the United States Congress.
Senate
Elected to the Senate, but not seated
House ...
*
Women in the United States House of Representatives
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolies, Marjorie
1942 births
Living people
American television reporters and correspondents
Emmy Award winners
Columbia University fellows
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives
Jewish women politicians
Candidates in the 1998 United States elections
20th-century American politicians
Politicians from Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Women in Pennsylvania politics
Journalists from Pennsylvania
20th-century American women politicians
Mezvinsky family
American women television journalists
American women academics