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Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan finished third in her Ohio The Republican congressional primary Tuesday night gave ICE critics a talking point but left Republican officials convinced they have the right candidate to flip a battleground seat.
Sheahan’s loss to former state Rep. Derek Merrin brings relief to republicans concerned about her election against Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
Kaptur is the longest-serving woman in congressional history and a top target of the National Republican Congressional Committee in the midterm elections as a potential swing seat in the battle for the narrow House majority. The House is currently 218-212, with five vacancies and one independent who is part of the Republican Party.
“40-year career politician Marcy Kaptur has failed Ohioans for decades and Northwest Ohioans are ready for change,” NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon told Fox News Wednesday morning.
ICE DEPUTY DIRECTOR RESIGNS FROM THE AGENCY TO RUN FOR CONGRESS
Madison Sheahan was named deputy director of ICE by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
“Although Kaptur has promoted a radical agenda of the extreme left or higher taxesopen borders and sex reassignment surgeries for children, Derek Merrin is ready to flip the seat red to deliver common-sense leadership and real results.”
Merrin won 44.1% of the vote, according to the latest election results from the Associated Press, with state Rep. Josh Williams in second place (24.3%) and Sheahan in third place (20.2%).
Northwest Ohio’s 9th Congressional District has been identified as one of the best opportunities for Republicans in the midterm elections.
Merrin’s victory sets up a rematch with Kaptur, who has represented the Toledo-area seat since 1983 and eked out a victory in 2024 by just 0.64%, losing by just 2,382 votes. Trump won the district by 7 points in 2024, and Kaptur’s narrow re-election margin in the last cycle makes the seat especially vulnerable.
Former ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan finished third in her Ohio Republican primary Tuesday night, but Republicans say that doesn’t reflect immigration in the district, the state or nationally. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
Sheahan, 29, entered the race after leaving her position as deputy director of ICE in January, leaning heavily on her job as president. donald trumpFormer aide to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem praised her performance at ICE in her campaign launch video, saying she was best suited to overtake Kaptur because of her experience in immigration enforcement.
“In Washington, hypocrisy, excuses and failure can earn you a job for life,” he said. “But on my family farm, that would have put us out of business.”
But his speech was unsuccessful in a primary where local analysts said voters seemed more focused on economic issues, including manufacturing jobs and tariffs. Merrin also entered the race with greater name recognition locally. Originally from tiny Curtice, Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie, Sheahan called herself “a Trump conservative” but had recently returned to the area after leaving ICE and spending time in Louisiana and South Dakota.
The result avoids what some Republicans privately saw as a potentially riskier general election showdown. While immigration remains a motivating issue for Republican voters, Sheahan’s association with ICE came as the agency faced congressional scrutiny for aggressive law enforcement tactics, including fatal shootings by immigration agents earlier this year.
“There hasn’t been much talk about her,” Democratic operative Aaron Pickrell told the Washington Post. “Even within Ohio Republican politics, immigration does not appear to be the driving factor.”
His defeat also suggests that Trump’s immigration platform, while still central to the Republican brand, may not be enough on its own to carry a candidate through a competitive battleground primary. House district.
“In less than a year at ICE, I have detained more illegal immigration than Marcy Kaptur in her 43 years in Washington,” Sheahan said in his campaign launch video in January alongside Noem dressed as ICE.
“So when the call came to help President Trump clean up the dangerous immigration mess, as deputy director of ICE, I answered the call.”
While Democrats will try to point to ties to ICE as an unpopular election issue this cycle, immigration enforcement “remains a winning issue for Republicans” in the district, the state and nationally, a GOP operative told the Post.
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Immigration “activates the base in districts like that, especially in a low-turnout election when you need low-propensity Trump voters,” the agent added. “This topic galvanizes them.”
Paul Steinhauser of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
