Northup, Anne Meagher, 1948-

<p>A Louisville native and 10-year veteran of the Kentucky state legislature, Anne Northup won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, the first woman in more than 60 years to represent her state in Congress. In her first term, Northup gained a seat on the influential Appropriations Committee which oversees federal spending. Her chief legislative pursuits centered on education issues and the procurement of federal dollars for transportation projects and community programs in her Louisville district.</p>

<p>Anne Northup was born Anne Meagher in Louisville, Kentucky, on January 22, 1948, one of 11 children raised by James and Floy Meagher. In 1966 she graduated from Sacred Heart Academy of Louisville and, four years later, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Saint Mary’s College in Indiana. In college she met Robert (Woody) Northup, and the two married in 1969. The couple settled in Louisville, where Anne worked as a math teacher and raised their six children: David, Katie, Joshua, Kevin, Erin, and Mark. By the early 1980s, she began volunteering for political candidates, including Ronald Reagan’s two runs for President. Northup’s first campaign for elective office was in a 1987 special election for a seat in the Kentucky legislature, representing a Louisville district in the state house of representatives. She won and was re-elected to four additional terms, serving from 1987 to 1996. At the state capitol, Northup was an outspoken critic of the tobacco industry, a major part of the state’s economy. She introduced legislation to curb tobacco sales to minors and levy a tax on the crop.</p>

<p>In 1996 Northup challenged one-term Democratic incumbent Michael Delavan Ward for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisville. The district, which overlapped with portions of Northup’s state legislature district, covered the larger Louisville and Jefferson County area, where registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans two-to-one. Tobacco, health care, shipping, and tourism accounted for much of the district’s economy. Northup, who opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, won the support of social conservatives. She also pledged to reduce government spending. “Sometimes something might look great, but, hey, if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it,” she declared. Northup narrowly defeated Ward—by about 1,300 votes out of more than 250,000 cast—even though Democratic President William J. (Bill) Clinton carried the district in his re-election. In her next three re-elections, Northup won by slightly larger margins. In 2004 she won a fifth consecutive term by the largest margin of her career, 60 to 38 percent.</p>

<p>Anne Meagher Northup (born January 22, 1948) is an American Republican politician and educator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. From 1997 to 2007, she represented the Louisville-centered 3rd congressional district of Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives, where she served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She lost reelection to Democrat John Yarmuth in the 2006 election. She then ran for governor, losing by 15 points to embattled Governor of Kentucky Ernie Fletcher in the Republican primary election for the 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election. Prior to her election to the United States House of Representatives, Northup had served in the Kentucky House of Representatives.</p>

<p>Northup ran again for her old congressional seat in the 2008 election, losing again to Yarmuth.</p>

<p>On July 30, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Northup to a seat on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 7. The seat was a Republican seat by statute and Northup was the choice of the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. She was one of the few government regulators who had previously served in Congress. She left the Commission on October 26, 2012. Since her defeat in 2006 no other women have served in Congress from Kentucky.</p>