Shea-Porter, Carol, 1952-

Carol Shea-Porter (born December 2, 1952) is an American social worker, professor, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district from 2007 to 2011, 2013 to 2015, and 2017 to 2019.

Born Carol Shea in Brooklyn, New York, her family moved from New York to Durham, New Hampshire, when she was a teenager. Shea graduated from Durham’s Oyster River High School before entering the University of New Hampshire, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in social services in 1975 and a master’s in public administration in 1979. After marrying Gene Porter, she moved around the country: first to Colorado where she worked for an Army medical center, then briefly to New Orleans where she directed senior centers, before spending 15 years in the Washington, DC, area where she continued providing services to senior citizens; she also taught political science and history at a community college. After returning to New Hampshire in 2001, Shea-Porter became active in local politics serving as chair of the Rochester City Democrats. After two volunteer trips to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Shea-Porter decided to run for the U.S. House in 2006. In a wave election that saw Democrats capture the House majority, Shea-Porter defeated Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley with 51 percent in 2006. In her rematch against Bradley in 2008, Shea-Porter won by a similar margin. In 2010, Shea-Porter lost to Republican Frank Guinta after taking 42 percent of the vote. She went on to defeat Guinta in the 2012 election, lost to him again in 2014, and defeated him once more in 2016. The constant back and forth led a political analyst to call it “the timeshare district.”

Early in her career, Shea-Porter balanced her opposition to the Iraq War with advocating support for veterans and their families. Throughout her career in Congress, she sought a full-service hospital for veterans in her district; New Hampshire was the only state without such a facility. During negotiations over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, Shea-Porter supported a government-run public health care option, believing preventative care bolstered by the ACA would keep long-term costs down and condemned efforts to privatize Medicare. In the 115th Congress, Shea-Porter submitted the Medicare You Can Opt Into Act, allowing Americans who were not yet old enough to access the program to buy into the public-run system in lieu of private insurance. Shea-Porter also worked on issues related to personal and data privacy.

In October 2017, Shea-Porter announced she would not run for re-election in 2018.