Margolies-Mezvinsky, Marjorie, 1942-

Marjorie Margolies (formerly Margolies-Mezvinsky; born June 21, 1942) is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and a women's rights activist. She is a former journalist and a Democratic politician. From 1993 to 1995, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.

Born in Philadelphia, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. She was a broadcast journalist for over twenty-four years, winning five Emmy Awards for her work. She worked as a television journalist at WCAU-TV from 1967 to 1969, was a CBS News Foundation Fellow, Columbia University from 1969 to 1970, and then worked for WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990. She was also a correspondent for the Today Show.

In 1992, she ran for an open U.S. House seat encompassing most of the Montgomery County suburbs northwest of Philadelphia. From the moment Margolies-Mezvinsky declared her candidacy for the open seat, it was an uphill battle, since the district was two-to-one in favor of registered Republicans and had not elected a Democrat since 1916. Her campaign focused on job creation, health care, and education. During the campaign, Margolies-Mezvinsky portrayed herself as a nontraditional Democrat who sought to reduce the cost of social programs and avoid hiking taxes. She was narrowly elected with a margin of less than 1400 votes.

When Margolies-Mezvinsky took her seat in the 103rd Congress (1993–1995), she received assignments on the influential Energy and Commerce Committee, as well as the Government Operations and Small Business Committees. She focused on issues affecting women, from abortion to health care. Along with legislation that promoted policies important to women, Margolies-Mezvinsky supported much of the Democratic Party’s legislative agenda. The turning point for Margolies-Mezvinsky came when she made a last-minute switch to support the 1993 Clinton budget after months of publicly voicing her opposition to the bill because it did not contain enough spending cuts. Casting the deciding vote in support of the 1993 budget created resentment among her constituents. In 1994 the Republican National Committee targeted her and 14 other vulnerable House Democrats (many of them first-term women) who had voted for the Clinton budget. She lost her bid for re-election by a four-point margin.

After Congress, Margolies-Mezvinsky chaired the National Women’s Business Council and served as the director and deputy chair of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. She served as executive director of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a group that backed women candidates who supported abortion rights. In 1998 she left that post to run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania. In 1999 Margolies-Mezvinsky initiated a challenge against incumbent U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania but soon withdrew when her husband’s finances came under investigation. Although Edward Mezvinsky was convicted on federal fraud charges in 2002, investigators cleared Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of wrongdoing. In 2014 Margolies unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the 114th Congress (2015–2017).