1. Heather R Mizeur is an American politician who served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from January 10,2007 to January 14,2015, representing the 20th district in Montgomery County, Maryland.
55 Facts About Heather Mizeur
1. 2.
Heather Mizeur was a candidate for governor of Maryland in the 2014 election but lost the Democratic primary to Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown.
3.
Heather Mizeur lost the general election to Harris by 11 points.
4.
Heather Mizeur's father, Dale Mizeur, was a welder at the Caterpillar, Inc factory and a member of the United Auto Workers.
5.
Heather Mizeur attended Blue Mound High School, where she graduated as valedictorian of her graduating class.
6.
Heather Mizeur attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a Truman scholar from 1991 to 1994, but dropped out after receiving a full-time job offer in the office of US Representative Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who she had interned for during her junior year.
7.
Heather Mizeur first got involved with politics when she was 15 years old, volunteering for the campaign of Illinois State Senator Penny Severns.
8.
In 1998, Heather Mizeur briefly left Capitol Hill to work for the National Association of Community Health Centers before returning to work for US Senator John Kerry in 2003, later working on his presidential campaign team and writing his health care platform.
9.
In November 2003, Heather Mizeur was elected to the Takoma Park City Council, succeeding outgoing councilwoman Carol Stewart.
10.
In 2005, after state delegate Peter Franchot announced that he would run in the 2006 Maryland Comptroller election, Heather Mizeur entered the race to succeed him.
11.
Heather Mizeur won the Democratic primary, placing first with 21.9 percent of the vote, and later won the general election with 30.8 percent of the vote.
12.
Heather Mizeur was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 10,2007, and was re-elected for a second term in 2010.
13.
Heather Mizeur was the first openly gay member of the Maryland General Assembly to have a spouse.
14.
In November 2012, Heather Mizeur told The Washington Blade that she was "taking a very serious look" at running for governor in 2014.
15.
Heather Mizeur began fundraising for a potential bid in January 2013, before launching her campaign on July 16,2013.
16.
Heather Mizeur's running mate was Reverend Delman Coates, a Prince George's County pastor who backed the state's 2012 same-sex marriage referendum.
17.
Heather Mizeur participated in the state's public financing system, making her the first gubernatorial candidate to limit their campaign spending since Republican Ellen Sauerbrey in 1994.
18.
Heather Mizeur refused to criticize any of the other candidates in the primary, instead pointing out the differences in their political positions.
19.
Heather Mizeur was defeated by Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown in the Democratic primary election on June 25,2014, placing third with 21.7 percent of the vote.
20.
Heather Mizeur later endorsed Brown in an op-ed to The Baltimore Sun in October 2014, in which she asked her supporters not to vote for her as a write-in candidate in the general election.
21.
Heather Mizeur sold her home in Takoma Park to move to her farm in Chestertown, Maryland, where she and her wife grow organic herbs.
22.
Heather Mizeur was seen as a potential candidate in the 2016 United States Senate election in Maryland, in which incumbent US Senator Barbara Mikulski said she would not run for re-election.
23.
Heather Mizeur later said on April 8,2015, that she would not run for Senate in 2016, and later endorsed US Representative Chris Van Hollen for the seat.
24.
In October 2017, Heather Mizeur launched a nonprofit organization named Soul Force Politics, which sought to increase involvement with politics and social justice in Maryland.
25.
In January 2021, Heather Mizeur announced that she would run for the United States House of Representatives in Maryland's 1st congressional district, challenging incumbent US Representative Andy Harris, citing the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Harris' involvement in refusing to certify the results of the 2020 United States presidential election.
26.
Heather Mizeur received backing from the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, LGBTQ Victory Fund, LPAC, Sierra Club, and EMILY's List.
27.
Heather Mizeur's opponents accused her of seeking to influence the redistricting process and opposed the newly drawn maps.
28.
Harris and Heather Mizeur agreed to a televised debate moderated by Cecil TV, a community broadcasting outlet in Cecil County, and to attend a forum hosted by the Kent County chapter of the League of Women Voters.
29.
Heather Mizeur was defeated by Harris in the general election, in which she received 43.1 percent of the vote to Harris' 54.4 percent.
30.
Heather Mizeur conceded the election to Harris on the night of the election.
31.
Heather Mizeur is openly lesbian, having come out to her parents during her sophomore year of college.
32.
Heather Mizeur married her wife Deborah in 2005, at a time when same-sex marriages were not recognized by the state of Maryland.
33.
The couple lived in Takoma Park while Heather Mizeur served in the Maryland House of Delegates, but later moved to Chestertown, where she owns a 34-acre herb farm, named "The Apotheosis of Washington" after the famous fresco that adorns the dome of the United States Capitol.
34.
In October 2013, Heather Mizeur unveiled a plan to expand access to pre-kindergarten education by providing full-day pre-K programs to 4-year-olds and half-day programs to 3-year-olds in lower-income families.
35.
In October 2017, Heather Mizeur said she supported a plan to provide free community college tuition to Maryland students.
36.
In November 2014, after the study concluded and Governor O'Malley allowed energy companies to begin drilling in the state, Heather Mizeur cautioned governor-elect Larry Hogan against acting in a rash manner when mapping out his administration's fracking proposals.
37.
In September 2011, Heather Mizeur introduced a Democratic National Committee resolution that called on President Obama to kill the Keystone Pipeline.
38.
In February 2012, Heather Mizeur said she supported imposing a severance tax on natural gas of at least 10 percent, and was "open-minded" about a rate as high as 15 percent.
39.
Heather Mizeur said that the state should not allow drilling without first passing a "competitive" severance tax to ensure the state is able to oversee the industry.
40.
In May 2014, Heather Mizeur unveiled a plan to increase government oversight on utility companies by expanding the Maryland Public Service Commission membership, reforming the franchising process, and requiring power companies to renegotiate their licenses every 10 to 15 years.
41.
In November 2022, Heather Mizeur said she supported building wind farms off the coast of Maryland, saying that she refused to believe it was an "either-or choice" in supporting wind energy or supporting commercial fishermen.
42.
In November 2022, Heather Mizeur said she supported providing immigrants with H-2B visas to support Maryland's commercial fishing and aquaculture industry.
43.
In November 2013, Heather Mizeur said she would support raising the state's minimum wage to $16.70 by 2022.
44.
Heather Mizeur proposed a paid family leave program that would pay workers two-thirds their salary and up to $1,000 a week for up to six weeks.
45.
In March 2014, Heather Mizeur voted to increase the state's minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour by 2017.
46.
In 2005, Heather Mizeur ran for one of Maryland's four seats on the Democratic National Committee.
47.
Heather Mizeur later served as a superdelegate at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, initially staying neutral before eventually pledging her vote to US Senator Barack Obama.
48.
In July 2004, Heather Mizeur introduced a resolution to the Takoma Park City Council supporting a lawsuit filed by nine gay couples against the state for the right to wed.
49.
In 2011, Heather Mizeur supported and spoke in support of the Civil Marriage Protection Act, a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in Maryland.
50.
Also in 2011, Heather Mizeur supported and spoke in support of a bill that would provide transgender individuals with protections against gender identity discrimination.
51.
Heather Mizeur again supported the bill when it was reintroduced in 2014.
52.
In November 2013, Heather Mizeur unveiled a tax plan that included tax hikes for the state's wealthy, cuts of up to $150 a year to the state's income tax, and property tax breaks for small businesses.
53.
Heather Mizeur said she supported creating a Cabinet-level position for advocating for regulatory reforms on the behalf of the business community.
54.
In May 2022, Heather Mizeur said she supported closing tax loopholes for large corporations and restoring tax rates for individuals making more than $400,000 a year to the rates they were paying to their pre-Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 levels.
55.
Heather Mizeur said she supported providing tax credits to renters to preserve affordable housing.