Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, in recent days built up a lot of momentum as a potential challenger to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for the throne of House Democrats and wielder of the speaker’s gavel.
On Monday, Fudge signed a letter with 16 other House Democrats who pledged not to vote for Pelosi for speaker, possibly derailing her chance of being the first House Democrat to win back the speakership since Sam Rayburn in 1955. Fudge has publicly mulled running for speaker. And she’s an ideal choice, as someone who can count on at least some support from the Congressional Black Caucus, a group both influential and essential within the House Democratic Caucus.
However, Fudge’s run might have ended before it even began.
Back in 2015, Fudge defended former Ohio Judge Lance Mason, writing a letter in support of leniency after he was accused of physically abusing his wife Aisha Fraser. In the letter, Fudge wrote that then-Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Mason was “a good man who made a very bad mistake.”
On Saturday, Mason was taken into custody by police again and charged with stabbing Fraser to death.
In 2015, Mason took a plea deal, reducing eight charges including felonious assault, kidnapping, and endangering children to a domestic violence charge and felonious assault.
Fudge’s letter in support of Mason helped him secure an early release over a year shy of his 24-month prison sentence.
In response to Mason’s recent arrest, Fudge released a statement saying, “My heart breaks for Aisha Fraser. I pray for Aisha’s family, especially her children, as they attempt to deal with this tragedy. My support of Lance in 2015 was based on the person I knew for almost 30 years — an accomplished lawyer, prosecutor, state legislator and a judge. That’s the Lance Mason I supported. The person who committed these crimes is not the Lance Mason familiar to me. It was a horrific crime. I and everyone who knew Aisha are mourning her loss.”
In the #MeToo era where men and women have faced a reckoning from victims and survivors, covering for an admitted domestic abuser can be perceived as more harmful than the act of violence itself.
For Fudge, this is pretty damning. Whether Fudge decides to remain in Congress, it’s difficult to imagine that she will have any shot of taking the gavel away from Pelosi now.
