Margaret Heckler didn’t wait her turn. Had she done so, she may well have never scaled the heights of American politics from Congress to the Cabinet to an Ambassadorship.
In 1965, a grand old man of Massachusetts politics was supposed to retire. Joe Martin had entered politics during the great Republican fissure of 1912, choosing to stand with William Howard Taft over the Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt. Martin won.
From state representative to state senator, Martin took on incumbent Congressman William Greene twice (in 1918 and 1924) and lost both elections. But Greene died a week after the 1924 primary and Martin was chosen to replace him as the GOP nominee. He won his southeastern Massachusetts that year as Calvin Coolidge took 62% of the Bay State’s vote.
He had served twice as Speaker of the House and was the long-standing GOP leader. When his colleagues moved to replace him as leader in 1958, an unceremonious rebuff, Martin did what few Speakers before and none since, he stayed on as a backbencher. He was a true man of the House.
But by 1966, Martin was, like Greene in 1924, old and infirm. His district boundaries had also shifted from southeastern Massachusetts to include suburbs west of Boston. The kind of vigorous campaigning needed to appeal to new voters was beyond him.
Assured that Martin was poised to retire, Margaret Heckler, a Governor’s Councilor in her 2nd term, began to campaign for the 10th district seat in 1965. She was supposed to face off against the minority leader of the state Senate, John Parker. However, Martin announced in early 1966 that he would stay in the race. Parker opted not to run, and a significant endorsement for Martin came in from Governor John Volpe, who also was a friend of Parker’s and wanted to ensure Martin’s seat was saved for him.
Parker waited his turn. Hecker did not. She didn’t drop out of the race despite pressure to do so. She simply outran Martin.
In retrospect, 1966 seemed an ideal time for Heckler to run. Physically, Martin could not easily campaign and, when he did, he was slow, difficult to understand. He shuffled on a cane. But he had been a former Speaker and former House minority leader. He was five times the Chair of the Republican National Convention. He was widely respected by members of both parties and was a fierce advocate for his district. A career that spans the administrations of Calvin Coolidge to Lyndon Johnson earns a lot of political favors to cash in when needed.
What Margaret Heckler faced was “the politics of waiting your turn’ against a widely-adored incumbent. And she prevailed.
So much of democratic politics is timing, deciding when to run for the office you want. Had Heckler yielded to the “politics of waiting your turn,” it’s very likely that John Parker would have won the 1968 Republican nomination.
The political establishment would have told Heckler in 1966 that her timing was off. You can hear the conversations:
• Martin was much beloved and had done so much for the Commonwealth and the nation;
• challenging him would set her career back;
• an intra-party skirmish might give the Democrats an opening to win the seat;
• it’s Parker’s turn, and when he’s finished in Congress, it’ll be your turn;
• A woman’s place is not in the House (Massachusetts had, up to that year, only sent one woman to the US House—Edith Nourse Rogers).
Still, Heckler refused to back down. She won. When other told her to wait her turn, she went with her gut instinct. It’s an inspiring lesson for those wondering when, or if, they should get into public life.