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Mary Rose Oakar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Ohio House of Representatives from the 13th district | |
| In office January 3, 2001 – December 31, 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Barbara C. Pringle |
| Succeeded by | Michael J. Skindell |
| Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus | |
| In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1989[a] | |
| Leader | Tip O'Neill Jim Wright |
| Preceded by | Geraldine Ferraro (Secretary) |
| Succeeded by | Steny Hoyer |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 20th district | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | James V. Stanton |
| Succeeded by | Martin Hoke (redistricted) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 5, 1940 |
| Died | September 13, 2025 (aged 85) Lakewood, Ohio, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Ursuline College (BA) John Carroll University (MA) |
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Mary Rose Oakar (March 5, 1940 – September 13, 2025) was an American Democratic politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, serving from 1977 to 1993. Oakar was the first Arab American woman, first Syrian American, and first Lebanese American woman to serve in Congress. She was also the first Democratic woman elected to the United States Congress from that state. Oakar later served as a member of the Ohio State Board of Education.
Early life
Mary Rose Oakar was born in Cleveland on March 5, 1940.[1] She graduated with a B.A. from Ursuline College in 1962 and an M.A. from John Carroll University in 1966. She had also attended Columbia University in 1963, and spent some time in England, attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1964, and Westham Adult College, Warwickshire, in 1968.[1] She taught at her alma mater of Lourdes Academy, a Catholic high school for women, directed plays, taught at Cuyahoga Community College from 1968 to 1975 and served on the Cleveland City Council from 1973 to 1976.[2]
U.S. House of Representatives
In 1976, Oakar was elected to the United States House of Representatives as the member for Ohio's 20th congressional district, comprising Cleveland's West Side and the surrounding suburbs.[2] She took office in 1977, succeeding James V. Stanton.[1]
Oakar, one of very few Arab-American members of the House (she was of Lebanese and Syrian ancestry),[3] became regarded as an increasingly powerful member. She was a high-ranking member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service and the House Administration Committee. Oakar's high placement on these committees allowed her to bring home to Cleveland large sums of money for urban renewal. Oakar forged strong relationships with Jewish groups in Cleveland. From 1985 to 1989, she was elected to a position in the House Democratic leadership, as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus.[4]
Financial scandals
In 1991, she was one of nearly 100 Members of Congress involved in the widespread House banking scandal involving multiple overdrafts and bounced checks. She had written 213 overdrafted checks.[2] The House Bank, not a normally operating financial institution, was used to pay members of the House. However, members were allowed to take advances on their pay checks without overdraft charges or repercussions to their credit.[5]
Oakar used the names of straw donors on federal documents to conceal illegal contributions amounting to $16,000. In 1995, she was indicted on seven counts in federal court, including lying to the FBI, filing false financial statements and using the House bank to convert public money for personal use.[6][7] Three counts against her were thrown out by the Supreme Court, the others were dropped after she entered a plea bargain in which she pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges; conspiracy and violation of election law.[8]
Redistricting and defeat
In 1992, her district was renumbered the 10th and redrawn to include more Republicans, though it was still solidly Democratic. Oakar withstood a challenge from Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan in the Democratic primary — Hagan had been endorsed by Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White — but lost to businessman Martin Hoke in the general election.[9]
Post-Congress career
Oakar won a 1999 libel settlement against Cleveland's newspaper, The Plain Dealer, after seven years in court. In April 1992 The Plain Dealer published articles alleging that Oakar was forced to resign from a congressional task force after the House banking scandal. The paper acknowledged that the eight-term Democrat "was rightfully upset that erroneous information" had been printed.[10]
She served a single term in the Ohio House of Representatives from 2000 to 2002.[2] During her time in the State House, Oakar unsuccessfully ran in the 2001 Cleveland mayoral election. She came third in nonpartisan primary election and failed advance to the general election.[11]
Oakar served as president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) from 2003 through 2010. ADC describes itself as the largest Arab-American grassroots civil-rights organization in the U.S.[12]
In November 2012, she was elected to a four-year term on the Ohio State Board of Education where she represented District 11, which encompasses Ohio Senate districts 21, 23, and 25.[13]
Death
Oakar died at a care home in Lakewood, Ohio, on September 13, 2025, at the age of 85.[2][14][15]
In popular culture
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Oakar's name and picture.[16]
See also
- List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes
- List of Arab and Middle-Eastern Americans in the United States Congress
- List of federal political scandals in the United States
- Women in the United States House of Representatives
Notes
- Known as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus until January 3, 1987
References
- "OAKAR, Mary Rose, (1940 - )". bioguide.congress.gov. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- Gabriel, Trip (September 16, 2025). "Mary Rose Oakar, 85, First Arab American Woman in Congress, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2025.
- "Mary Rose Oakar: Representative, 1977–1993, Democrat from Ohio". Women In Congress. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- "Women Elected to Party Leadership Positions". Women in Congress. U.S. House of Representatives. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
- Holden Lewis (February 22, 2000). "Congress comes down from the hill to bank with the rest of us". BankRate.com. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- "Ex-Rep. Oakar Indicted in House Bank Scandal". The Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. February 23, 1995.
- "#102 Former Congresswoman Mary Oakar Rose Indicted".
- "Mary Rose Oakar: Representative, 1977–1993, Democrat from Ohio". Women In Congress. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- Ruess, Michelle (November 4, 1992). "Hoke topples Oakar". The Plain Dealer. p. C1. Retrieved September 15, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- Lori Robertson (April 1999). "After All These Years". American Journalism Review. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
- "October 2, 2001 Summary Report". Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
- "ADC Expresses its Gratitude to Mary Rose Oakar for Over 6 Years of Service and Congratulates Sara Najjar-Wilson as New ADC President". ArabAmerica.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
- "Member Bio - Mary Rose Oakar". education.ohio.gov. Ohio Department of Education. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
- Eaton, Sabrina (September 14, 2025). "Mary Rose Oakar, pioneering Ohio congresswoman, dies at 85". Cleveland.com. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
- Morita, Maya (September 7, 2025). "Former Congresswoman, Cleveland native Mary Rose Oakar, dies at 85". News 5 Cleveland. Scripps Media, Inc. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
- Wulf, Steve (March 23, 2015). "Supersisters: Original Roster". Espn.go.com. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
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Mary Rose Oakar, 85, First Arab American Woman in Congress, Dies
In her 16 years on Capitol Hill, she emerged as a champion of women’s rights, especially equal pay for comparable work.
Mary Rose Oakar, who in 1977 became the first Arab American woman in Congress and a champion of women’s rights during her 16 years in the House representing a working-class district of Cleveland, died on Saturday in the suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. She was 85.
Her family said she died in a nursing home.
Ms. Oakar, a Democrat who grew up poor on Cleveland’s West Side, was one of just 18 women among 435 House members after her election in 1976. In her first term, she successfully introduced legislation creating a $1 coin to honor the American suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and she went on to help found what is now the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus.
As an observant Roman Catholic, her opposition to abortion rights put her crosswise with national women’s groups, despite her liberal outlook on other issues. She put herself through college working as a telephone operator, and her feminism was grounded in economic parity.
“Economic security is the truly liberating issue for women,” she told The New York Times in 1985. She sponsored bills to guarantee women the same pay as men for jobs of comparable worth, an issue strongly opposed by Republicans.
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She clashed with the conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, who called Ms. Oakar’s proposal to raise salaries in the traditionally female fields of nursing and teaching an attack on blue-collar men. Ms. Oakar countered that raising women’s pay would strengthen families.
At a heated House hearing on the issue in 1985, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., called Ms. Oakar’s equal-pay proposal “reparations for middle-class white women.”
Ms. Oakar said Mr. Pendleton, a conservative who became the first African American chairman of the commission after his appointment by President Ronald Reagan, had “tarnished” the commission, and that he was following the same line of reasoning as supporters of “slavery, child labor and those who didn’t want women to be given loans or credit by banks.”
Bills introduced by Ms. Oakar to ensure pay equity did not advance. She was more successful winning equal access for women to the congressional gym and pool.
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In 1985, Ms. Oakar was elected secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, one of the few women in leadership in either party. She gained power as a close ally of Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. of Massachusetts. Ms. Oakar was able to channel significant sums to urban renewal projects in Cleveland, as well as helping to bring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to the city.
Ms. Oakar’s potential to emerge as a national leader of the Democrats and on women’s issues was limited by her opposition to abortion rights. She lamented that groups such as the National Organization for Women had made abortion rights what she called a “litmus test.” She was denied campaign support by women’s organizations because of the issue.
Her rise was also thwarted by an issue closer to home: In 1992, Ms. Oakar was exposed as one of some two dozen members of Congress who were the most egregious abusers of a House banking system; she wrote 213 checks that overdrew her account, though there were no penalty fees for doing so.
Reportedly fearing embarrassment, her party forced her resignation as a highly visible co-chairwoman of the Platform Committee at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, held in New York City. Her replacement was a rising party figure: Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the future House speaker.
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That same year, while seeking a ninth term, Ms. Oakar drew the first serious primary challenger of her career. She won, but went on to lose in the general election to the Republican nominee, Martin R. Hoke, a millionaire cellular phone company founder and political neophyte. Her defeat was also credited to the redrawing of her district, which had made Ms. Oakar an unfamiliar name to two out of every five of its voters.
After leaving Congress, she was indicted on campaign finance charges, including hiding contributions that exceeded the legal limit. She pleaded guilty in 1997 to two misdemeanors, paid a fine and received two years’ probation.
Mary Rose Oakar, whose parents were of Lebanese and Syrian descent, was born in Cleveland on March 5, 1940. She was the youngest of five children of Joseph and Margaret (Ellison) Oakar. Her father was a laborer.
She graduated in 1958 from Lourdes Academy, a private Catholic high school for girls in Cleveland, then received a bachelor’s degree in 1962 from Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio, and a master’s degree in fine arts in 1966 from John Carroll University in Cleveland. She taught English literature at Cuyahoga Community College from 1968 to 1975 and won election to Cleveland’s City Council in 1973.
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Three years later, she plunged into an 11-candidate Democratic primary for an open House seat in West Cleveland and its southern suburbs. James Oakar said in an interview that his sister got into politics because she was passionate about protecting the neighborhood they grew up in, then largely Irish American, and her involvement deepened from there.
She campaigned for Congress in a rose-covered convertible and passed out rose-decorated pens to remind people of her name, and she urged voters to send more women to Washington.
Ms. Oakar won the primary and easily carried the general election in her heavily Democratic district.
After her 1992 defeat, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve on the White House Conference on Aging. She also did consulting work. Starting in 2000, she served a single two-year term in the Ohio House of Representatives and made an unsuccessful bid in 2001 for Cleveland mayor.
In 2003, Ms. Oakar became president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a civil rights group, which she led as Arab Americans faced rising hostility after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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“Under her leadership, ADC confronted government overreach, defended community members from discrimination and profiling, and strengthened the organization’s national voice at a time when it was most urgently needed,” the committee said in a statement this week.
Ms. Oakar commuted between the group’s Washington office and Cleveland, where she lived in her childhood home. Her brother is her only immediate survivor.
In 2012, not done with electoral politics, Ms. Oakar sought and won a seat on the Ohio Board of Education and served a four-year term.
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