Melissa Anne Hart is an American lawyer and politician. She was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007, representing western Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district. She was the first Republican woman to represent Pennsylvania at the federal level. Prior to her service in Congress, Hart served in the Pennsylvania Senate, where she chaired the finance committee. She was the first Republican woman elected to serve a full term in the Pennsylvania Senate in 1990 when she was 28 years old. In her first run for office, Hart defeated an incumbent in a senate district that included parts of Allegheny, Westmoreland and Armstrong counties. In the 2006 midterm elections, Hart lost her bid for re-election to DemocratJason Altmire. She challenged Altmire again in the 2008 election, but was defeated again.
After graduating from law school and being admitted to the bar, Hart joined a major Pittsburgh law firm, where she specialized in real estate law. Hart has served on the Washington & Jefferson CollegeBoard of Trustees. Hart was an active grassroots volunteer in her party in Western Pennsylvania from her days as a student at Washington & Jefferson College. She worked with other students to establish a College Republican Club on campus. The group was a reliable source for volunteers in Washington County where the party was in the minority in the early 1980s. It was there where Hart first learned the importance of grassroots politics, by door-knocking for candidates from District Attorney to Governor. In November 2000, Hart was elected to the House of Representatives from the Fourth District of the State of Pennsylvania, winning an open seat previously held by a Democrat. She had served as a senator in the Pennsylvania Senate from 1991 to 2001. She was later appointed co-chair of the Platform Committee for the 2004 Republican National Convention. She convened a task force to rename the Pittsburgh region’s highway system of I-279S/US-22/30W/PA-60N to extend and become a part of federal highway I-376. This initiative was researched and supported by local governments and the commonwealth as a tool to attract outside development to the region. This was supported by site selection professional who participated as well as the Southwest PA Regional Planning Commission. In 2002, Hart's campaign website was praised as being among the best of the election cycle. Hart co-chaired the Republican Party platform of 2004. In 2005 she was appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee. Hart played an active role in the race for majority leader in early 2006. As a top whip for the successful candidacy of Rep. John Boehner, she worked to secure votes for him in the race. She was one of a handful of GOP members who called for a full set of new leadership elections for whip, conference chair, and other offices below the majority leader position, but that motion narrowly failed the day before the majority leader race. Had this motion passed, Hart may have challenged Rep. Deborah Pryce for House Republican Conference Chairman, the No. 4 leadership spot. In December 2002, Hart was a candidate for Conference Vice-Chair, the No. 5 leadership spot, but lost to Jack Kingston. In a 2002 PoliticsPA feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, Hart was named amongst those "Most Likely to Succeed."
2006 election
As the 2006 campaign season approached, Hart's congressional seat was not considered vulnerable, and Hart was described in media accounts as a "rising star" in Republican politics, who had never lost an election and who had demonstrated a unique ability to appeal to non-conservative voters even while maintaining a generally conservative voting record. In late 2005, her predecessor in the House of Representatives, Democrat Ron Klink, publicly mulled over the possibility of challenging Hart for his old seat. However, in late December, Klink announced that he would not run. Jason Altmire, a 38-year-old health care executive and political unknown ultimately won the Democratic nomination for the seat. For most of 2006, the Altmire campaign was viewed as a long shot, but as the campaign wound down his poll numbers surged and Hart's dropped. An October Susquehanna poll showed Hart with what was then a surprisingly narrow 46%–42% lead over Altmire. Altmire's continued to climb as Hart's stalled, and five days before the November 7, 2006 election, the Cook Political Report altered its rating of the race from "Likely Republican" to "Toss up." On Election Day, Hart was defeated by a margin of 52%–48%. Hart's loss was one component of a broad Republican meltdown in Pennsylvania. Senator Rick Santorum who was at the top of the Republican ticket, lost his re-election bid by a very large margin. Pennsylvania also saw the defeat of three other incumbent Republican members of Congress. Democratic victories for the governor, and Democratic gains in the state House of Representatives also occurred that year. Following the election, she returned to the law firm Keevican Weiss Bauerle & Hirsch, where she had worked before being elected to Congress. She returned to her specialization of "general practice and business development."
Hart announced in July 2007 that she would run against Altmire in 2008. Despite speculation that retired athlete and former gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann would run for the seat, Hart was unopposed for the Republican nomination. In the general election, she was again defeated by Altmire, this time by a much larger margin.
Later career
Following Hart’s departure from the House in 2007, she rejoined her law firm, Keevican Weiss Bauerle & Hirsch, where she worked to build and chair the government relations section. She later returned to her original law firm, Hergenroeder Rega Ewing & Kennedy in 2017 to work with a group of attorneys with whom she had begun her legal career. In 2018, Hart was elected to the Board of Directors of Enterprise Bank. Also in 2018, Hart co-founded, with Tim Watkins and her former House colleague, Thaddeus McCotter, a political strategy, creative, and media firm, RPC Strategies, LLC.
