HECKLER, Margaret M.

HECKLER, Margaret M., a Representative from Massachusetts; born Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy, in Flushing, Queens County, N.Y., June 21, 1931; graduated from Dominican Academy, New York, N.Y., 1949; B.A., Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, Conn., 1953; LL.B., Boston College School of Law, Boston, Mass., 1956; attended University of Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands, 1952; editor, Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law; admitted to Massachusetts bar in 1956; elected a Governor's councilor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1962-1966; delegate, Republican National Convention, 1964 and 1968; elected as a Republican to the Ninetieth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1967-January 3, 1983); unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Ninety-eighth Congress in 1982; Secretary of Health and Human Services in the cabinet of President Ronald W. Reagan, 1983-1985; United States Ambassador to Ireland, 1985-1989; died on August 6, 2018, in Arlington, Va.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

In 1966, Margaret M. Heckler won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from a southeastern Massachusetts district, beginning what would become a long and productive political career. Still in her thirties, Heckler defeated former Speaker of the House Joseph W. Martin to win the Republican nomination in a seat that had recently tilted Democratic. After winning the general election, Heckler became just the second woman elected to the House from Massachusetts. Over her eight terms in Congress, Heckler used her seat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee to push for the end to the Vietnam War and legislate on the interests of America’s former servicemen and women. A champion of the Equal Rights Amendment, Heckler advocated for women’s issues and forged an independent streak in Congress. Reflecting on her remarkable career, Heckler observed, “I was always a Republican in a Democratic world, that was my whole life.”¹

Margaret M. Heckler was born Margaret Mary O’Shaughnessy on June 21, 1931, in Flushing, New York. She was the only child of John O’Shaughnessy, a hotel doorman, and Bridget McKeon O’Shaughnessy, both Irish-Catholic immigrants. She graduated from Albertus Magnus College in 1953, marrying John Heckler, an investment banker, in 1954. They had three children: Belinda, Alison, and John Jr. Heckler studied at the Boston College School of Law, and as the only woman in her class, Heckler soon learned that she had to be more prepared than her male colleagues. “When I was in law school, the professors called on me all the time,” she recalled. “What are the facts of this case? You’re called on. I knew I would be, and I got ready for that.” She graduated in 1956, forming a law office with fellow law school graduates. Shortly afterward she began volunteering in local Republican campaigns, and in 1958 she became a member of the Republican committee for Wellesley, Massachusetts, a position she held for eight years. Heckler’s first elected office was to the eight-person governor’s council—an elected advisory body mandated by the state constitution—in 1962, where she served for two terms.²

In 1966, Heckler surprised many when she announced her candidacy for the House against Republican Representative Joseph W. Martin, the venerable 81-year-old incumbent, whose seat encompassed southeastern Massachusetts. Martin had served on Capitol Hill since 1925 and had been Speaker of the House twice. Heckler’s energetic campaign was a marked contrast to the performances of her elderly opponent, who had missed more than half of the votes in the previous Congress. “Joe Martin had not been very active,” Heckler later observed, “and he presumed that the voters who had always voted for him would continue to vote for him. I was, meanwhile, ringing doorbells and pressing the flesh, as they say, campaigning.” Instead of highlighting their policy differences, Heckler focused attention on Martin’s frequent absences from Congress, telling a reporter that her district needed “attentive, full-time representation.” Heckler’s strategy worked as she won the Republican primary by 3,200 votes. Upon defeating Martin, Heckler still faced daunting odds as the Tenth District had been redrawn a few years before, tilting the seat heavily toward the Democratic Party. During the campaign, Heckler’s opponent, labor lawyer Patrick H. Harrington Jr., touted his military service as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve and praised President Lyndon B. Johnson for his handling of the Vietnam War. Heckler, by contrast, criticized the Johnson administration, called for de-escalation in Vietnam, and told a reporter that the President had not provided the “true facts” on the conflict. She went on to win the general election with 51 percent of the vote. In doing so, Heckler became only the second woman to be elected to the House from Massachusetts, following Edith Nourse Rogers who had served for more than three decades. “The men kept saying I couldn’t make it,” she later recalled, “but the women convinced them that a woman, even if she was the underdog, deserved their backing.”³

Heckler’s tenacious campaigning did not always guarantee her an easy path to re-election. The Tenth District remained competitive, and Heckler had to face down several strong opponents. In 1970, businessman Bertram Yaffe secured the Democratic nomination and charged Heckler with not pushing hard enough to end the Vietnam War. Although Yaffe made it a competitive race, Heckler won 57 percent of the vote. Heckler ran unopposed in 1972, but she had to weather the fallout from Watergate in the following cycle. In 1974, Barry Monahan, a former police commissioner, challenged Heckler and sought to tie her to Richard M. Nixon’s administration. Launching his campaign, Monahan proclaimed that the “Nixon-Heckler alliance can’t be permitted to hoodwink the American people through rhetoric.” Republicans lost 48 seats in the House in 1974, yet Heckler cruised to a victory over Monahan, capturing over 60 percent of the vote. Throughout her long House career, Heckler’s ability to chart her own course beyond simply voting along partisan lines—highlighted by the fact that Watergate had little impact on her electoral fortunes—proved a strength in an evenly divided district. A former aide noted that Heckler survived “in a district that rightfully should have had a Democrat [as] Representative. And she did it by very close calculations on how to vote.”⁴

Upon her arrival in Congress in 1967, Heckler gained a reputation as a champion for her district. She installed a toll-free hotline in her House office to facilitate communication between her constituents and her Washington staff. She also made weekly visits back to her district. In addition, Heckler took care to be a policy advocate for her constituents: calling for an end to foreign oil import quotas in order to gain cheaper fuel, protecting the New England textile industry, demanding protection for U.S. fishermen from Soviet harassment on the seas, and calling for tax credits to help parochial schools. Four days into her first term, Heckler ignored the chamber’s tradition that first-term Members remain silent, when she publicly demanded the release of Vladimir Kazan-Komarek, a constituent and naturalized citizen, who had been arrested for espionage in Czechoslovakia. When Kazan-Komarek was freed and returned to the United States, Heckler accompanied his wife and met him at the airport.⁵

Heckler’s diverse committee service shaped her ambitious legislative agenda. Heckler served on the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs for the entirety of her career, rising to ranking member in 1975. But she also held seats on eight other committees during her long career. She served on the Committee on Government Operations for one term, before moving to the Committee on Banking and Currency in her second term. After serving there for six years, Heckler joined the Committee on Agriculture. After three terms on Agriculture, Heckler transferred to the Committee on Science and Technology in her final Congress. She also served on the Joint Economic Committee from the 94th Congress to the 97th Congress (1975–1983). She further served on the Ethics Committee for the 95th Congress (1977–1979), the Committee on Aging in the 97th Congress (1981–1983), and the largely ceremonial House Beauty Shop Committee in the 92nd and 93rd Congresses (1971–1975).⁶

From her seat on Veterans’ Affairs, Heckler became known as an advocate for America’s servicemen and women and she developed a reputation as being willing to break with her own party on foreign affairs. Unlike many Republicans, Heckler wanted the United States less involved in the conflict in Vietnam. In 1968, Heckler irked many of her Republican colleagues when she took to television to charge General William C. Westmoreland with “deluding members of the Congress” with his optimistic prognostications regarding Vietnam. When other Members called for patience in Vietnam, or for additional troops, Heckler remained a firm critic, even after Richard M. Nixon became President.⁷

During her effort to end what she termed “the nightmare” in Vietnam, she also advocated on behalf of veterans, many of whom were drafted into service. From her seat on Veterans’ Affairs, Heckler urged her colleagues to pass legislation to improve the lives of the men who were returning from Vietnam. She sponsored legislation to provide additional career training for Vietnam veterans and for advanced geriatric care for all armed services personnel. In 1980, she sponsored a measure to provide pay increases for doctors and dentists employed by the Veterans Administration. When President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter somewhat surprisingly vetoed the legislation, Heckler rallied congressional support, pointing out that the pay raises were necessary to ensure that veterans received proper medical care. Congress overrode President Carter’s veto. For Heckler, supporting veterans was personal, and she later reflected on the importance of her committee seat: “My father had served in World War I, although he had been born in Ireland. He volunteered in the Navy. I had a feeling for veterans.”⁸

Throughout her congressional career, Heckler fought to secure legislation that benefited women, and she was a leading proponent of the Equal Rights Amendment. When it became clear that the amendment, which passed Congress in 1972, was unlikely to secure ratification by enough states, Heckler turned her attention to more targeted legislative efforts to improve the lives of women in America. In 1973, at a time when women largely lacked access to consumer products in the financial services industry, Heckler used her seat on the Committee on Banking and Currency to introduce legislation to enable women to secure credit in their own right. The following year, she helped guide through the House the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a bill that prohibited discrimination based on gender or marital status in acquiring credit. Heckler made a fervent and consistent commitment to women’s issues, working to combat rape, curb domestic violence, and protect pension rights for women on maternity leave. “I saw the battle for women was my battle,” Heckler remarked. “My own battle to speak out and to allow women of other generations who’d never been called on or never desired or aspired to become part of the debate, that their perspective be brought into the discussion. It was very essential that half the population be represented in the decision-making process.”⁹

Heckler, whose work to advance legislation that impacted women was largely bipartisan in nature, was also credited by her colleagues as the driving force for the formation of a women’s caucus on Capitol Hill. In 1976, Heckler hosted a dinner at her home in Virginia in hopes of organizing an issues caucus for Congresswomen. Although older, more established women Members were reluctant to join the effort, Patricia Scott Schroeder of Colorado later pointed to the gathering at Heckler’s house as the genesis of the caucus. In April 1977, Heckler teamed up with Representative Elizabeth Holtzman of New York to found the bipartisan Congresswomen’s Caucus to advance legislation important to women and to educate colleagues about it. Fifteen of the 18 women serving in Congress at the time joined. Heckler served as the Republican chair until 1982, the year the caucus changed its name to the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.¹⁰

Heckler’s congressional career ended unexpectedly in 1982 while she was the most senior Republican woman in the House. The Massachusetts legislature had redrawn the state’s congressional districts after the 1980 U.S. Census, and Heckler’s decision to not challenge Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy pitted her against Representative Barney Frank, a first-term Democrat, for re-election in a new district encompassing wealthy Boston suburbs and working-class communities in southeastern Massachusetts. Frank worked to make the race a referendum on President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. His campaign repeatedly concentrated on Heckler’s support for Reagan’s 1981 budget and economic plan, which combined spending and tax cuts. A sagging economy—district unemployment was more than 13 percent—made Heckler vulnerable to Frank’s charges, and in response she worked to convince voters that she was not “a Reagan clone.” “I’ve served under five Presidents, unbossed and unbought,” she proclaimed. On Election Day, Frank defeated Heckler with 59 percent of the vote to her 40 percent.¹¹

After leaving the House, Heckler continued in public service. In 1983, President Reagan nominated her as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Following her Senate confirmation, Heckler was sworn in as a member of the Cabinet by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on March 9, 1983. During her tenure at HHS, Heckler oversaw the establishment of new disability guidelines for Social Security and increased federal funding for Alzheimer’s disease. She later accepted President Reagan’s offer to be U.S. Ambassador to Ireland and served from December 1985 through August 1989, after which she returned to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Margaret Heckler died on August 6, 2018, in Arlington, Virginia.¹²

Boston College
John J. Burns Library

University of Oklahoma
The Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive, Department of Communication