U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) announced in October of 2019 she wouldn’t seek a new term. Her retirement concluded a noteworthy 32-year career in Congress, during which she became the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee (past chairs included James Garfield, later President, and Joseph Cannon, later Speaker).
Rep. Lowey is only the latest noteworthy female Representative from New York. The list includes Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress, who ran for President in 1972; Geraldine Ferraro, Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1984; Katharine St. George, a first cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt who represented Tuxedo Park as a Republican for 18 years; and Bella Abzug, the brassy co-founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus who was the subject of a Broadway show. [Read more…] about Ruth Pratt: Pioneering New York Woman in Congress