Marilyn Neoma Musgrave (née Shuler; born January 27, 1949), American politician, is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives who served from 2003 to 2009, representing the 4th District of Colorado.
Musgrave served on the Agriculture and Small Business Committees. In the 110th Congress, she served as Ranking Minority member of the Specialty Crops, Rural Development, and Foreign Agriculture subcommittee. She also served as the Region Two representative for the Republican Steering Committee. She was the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Colorado.
Musgrave lost her seat in 2008 to Democratic challenger Betsy Markey by a 56 to 44 percent margin.
Musgrave currently works for the Susan B. Anthony List, a non-profit that supports anti-abortion women in politics.
Background and early political career
Musgrave was born Marilyn Neoma Shuler in Greeley, Colorado. She graduated from Eaton High School in 1968, and attended Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, graduating with a B.A. in social studies in 1972. Musgrave married while attending CSU. She and her husband Steve Musgrave settled in Fort Morgan, south of Greeley, where they owned and operated a bale stacking business. Musgrave also taught school. The Musgraves have four children and eight grandchildren.
Musgrave's career in elective office began in 1991, when she served one term on the Fort Morgan School Board, where she focused on changing the local sex education curriculum to abstinence-only. She was also involved in the Fort Morgan Right To Life chapter, at one time serving as its president. Musgrave was then elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives in 1992, and served there until after her successful 1998 campaign for a Colorado State Senate seat. While serving in the state senate, Musgrave was selected the Senate Republican Caucus Chairman. In 2002, Musgrave ran for the Fourth Congressional District seat being vacated by Bob Schaffer.
Musgrave is a devout Pentecostal (she is a member of the Assemblies of God), and was one of three Pentecostals serving in the 110th Congress. The others—Republicans—were Tim Johnson of Illinois and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas.
Musgrave was one of the most conservative members of the state legislature, often sparring with more socially moderate and liberal legislators. She focused her time on social issues. She staunchly opposed granting civil unions and marriage for same-sex couples. In another area she was active on small business and agricultural issues, particularly authoring bills to exempt farm equipment dealers from sales tax and lowering taxes on small business.
Election history
2002 election
In 2002, after Congressman Bob Schaffer retired, Musgrave ran for and won the Republican nomination to succeed him. Her opponent was businessman Jeff Bedingfield. She received a big boost in the primary when she gained the endorsements of Schaffer and former Senator William Armstrong.
In November 2002 Musgrave defeated Democratic State Senate President Stan Matsunaka 55% to 42%. She had been favored most of the way due to her large campaign war chest and the district's traditional Republican lean (it had been in Republican hands since 1973).
2004 re-election
In 2004, Musgrave faced Matsunaka again. Matsunaka attacked Musgrave as a "one-trick pony," referring to her focus on outlawing same-sex marriage (see below). He also claimed that Musgrave neglected the 4th's needs and provided poor constituent services.
In the end, Musgrave held her seat by taking 51% of the vote to Matsunaka's 45%. Musgrave won most of the counties in this large and mostly rural district by margins of 2-to-1 or more. However, 85% of the district's vote is cast in two counties which account for only a third of its land—Larimer (home to Fort Collins) and Weld (home to Greeley). Musgrave lost Larimer County by 4,100 votes. She also lost the district's share of Boulder County, including Longmont. She was only able to hold onto her seat by winning Weld County by 15 points (almost 10,000 votes)—far larger than the overall margin of victory. She was also undoubtedly helped by George W. Bush's 58% win in the district.
While Matsunaka only entered the race in May and raised around $800,000, Musgrave was heavily targeted by a 527 group funded by Colorado activists such as Tim Gill. The ads featured an actress dressed up like Musgrave picking a corpse's pocket and stealing from a soldier in combat.