Hart, Melissa, 1962-

Melissa Anne Hart (born April 4, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician. She was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, representing western Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district. She was the first Republican woman to represent Pennsylvania at the federal level.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she graduated from North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania before earning a degree in business and German from Washington and Jefferson College. Hart then attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. After graduating from law school and being admitted to the bar, Hart joined a major Pittsburgh law firm, where she specialized in real estate law. After Pittsburgh officials raised property taxes, Hart decided to run for public office. In 1990, at age 28, Hart became the youngest woman and the first Republican woman elected to the Pennsylvania state senate. Despite hailing from an overwhelmingly Democratic district, she was re-elected twice. During her tenure in the state legislature, she chaired the finance committee and focused on tax reform.

When four-term incumbent Democratic Representative Ron Klink ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000, Hart entered the race to succeed him in the House. Pennsylvania’s Fourth District overlapped with her state senate district, encompassing parts of six counties spread across southwestern Pennsylvania. Though the district’s industrial past and history of union support usually kept it in Democratic hands, Hart’s platform supporting cutting taxes and economic development in western Pennsylvania helped her easily win with 60 percent of the vote. For three terms, Hart worked to limit government regulations on business, restrict access to abortion, and revive the economic prospects of her southwestern Pennsylvania district. In 2006, due to voter frustration with the George W. Bush administration, Hart narrrowly lost her bid for a fourth term to Democrat Jason Almire. Hart lost a 2008 rematch with Altmire by 12 points.

Following Hart’s departure from the House in 2007, she rejoined her law firm, Keevican Weiss Bauerle & Hirsch (now Keevican Weiss & Bauerle), where she worked to build and chair the government relations section. She later returned to her original law firm, Hergenroeder Rega Ewing & Kennedy in 2017 to work with a group of attorneys with whom she had begun her legal career. In 2018, Hart was elected to the Board of Directors of Enterprise Bank. Also in 2018, Hart co-founded a political strategy, creative, and media firm, RPC Strategies, LLC with Tim Watkins and her former House colleague, Thaddeus McCotter. Hart sought to retake her state senate seat in a 2012 special election triggered when her successor, Jane Orie, was forced to resign after being convicted of corruption and forgery. However, she lost the Republican primary.