Mastodawn

#Ohio, May 5: The GOP targets a Democratic survivor — again

 Rep. Marcy #Kaptur (D-Ohio) has fended off everything Republicans have thrown at her over the years.  Kaptur, 79, has represented northwest Ohio for more than four decades and is the longest-serving woman in congressional history.

Thanks to her deep connection with her working-class community and the weaknesses of a string of imperfect Republican candidates,
Kaptur has managed to hold on as the Rust Belt has moved further and further right in the Trump era. 

This time, Ohio Republicans, at Trump’s urging, redistricted the state and changed Kaptur’s from a district that marginally leaned toward Republicans
to one that overwhelmingly favors them.

“Let the Columbus politicians make their self-serving maps and play musical chairs,”
Kaptur said in response.

“I will fight on for the people.”   More than a half-dozen Republican candidates are running for the chance to challenge her in November
— a crowded, noisy primary that,
like past contests,
could hobble them in their effort to finally remove Kaptur. 

Derek Merrin, the former Ohio state representative Kaptur defeated in 2024, is on the ballot again,
along with Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams and Air Force veteran Alea Nadeem.

But Republicans are growing more excited about Madison Sheahan,
the former second-in-command at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
who jumped into the race in January.  Are Republicans determined to field a candidate closely aligned with Trump’s record, like Sheahan, even as polling shows broad disapproval of ICE and immigration enforcement?

Or will they turn to more traditional, less MAGA-aligned candidates?
Their choice in races like this one may be what matters most in November.

Chuck Darwin Jan 16

A top ICE official steps down to run for Congress in Ohio

A top-ranking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official
is leaving the agency
to run for Congress as a Republican in Ohio,

setting up a potential battleground district test of voter attitudes about the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
 #Madison #Sheahan, 28, is stepping down from her role as ICE’s deputy director
to challenge longtime Democratic Rep. #Marcy #Kaptur and represent Ohio’s 9th District.

In a video announcing her candidacy Thursday, Sheahan described herself as
a “Trump conservative”
and touted her record recruiting thousands of new agents
and deporting “over 2.5 million illegal aliens.”  The video features images of Sheahan in her role during various ICE operations,
including her wearing tactical gear and speaking at a lectern.

“When the call came to help President Trump clean up the dangerous immigration mess, as deputy director of ICE, I answered the call,” she narrates in the video.  Her candidacy comes as some federal immigration officers have been documented using aggressive tactics,
and amid an intensifying national debate over Trump’s mass deportation effort.
 Recent polling has shown that many Americans say they disapprove of ICE’s actions.

This month, a Quinnipiac University survey found that
57 percent of voters disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws,

and an Economist-YouGov poll found that 47 percent of U.S. citizens said ICE was making Americans less safe,
compared with 34 percent who said the agency was making Americans more safe.
 In Minneapolis, tensions between protesters and immigration enforcement officers have grown since Jan. 7,
when an ICE officer fatally shot
37-year-old Renée Good,
and as the Department of Homeland Security has continued to deploy agents to Minnesota.
 Sheahan’s entry into the race further crowds the Republican primary,
which is set for May 5.

Several Republicans are targeting the seat
— which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report With Amy Walter has as a general-election toss-up
— including state Rep. Josh Williams
and Derek Merrin, a former state lawmaker who was the GOP nominee and narrowly lost against Kaptur in 2024.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/01/15/ice-madison-sheahan-congress-ohio/

A top ICE official steps down to run for Congress in Ohio

Madison Sheahan’s background as ICE’s No. 2 official could test how voters in a competitive district respond amid scrutiny of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

The Washington Post

MusiqueNow

✡️ 🇵🇸

Nov 9, 2022

District 9, Ohio, #Kaptur winning