By Simone Ellis | M•I•A MEDIA GROUP
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters won reelection Nov. 3, securing a 19th term in the House and putting her on track to become the oldest woman serving in Congress when the new session begins in January. The 88-year-old California Democrat defeated Republican Cristian Morales in the 43rd Congressional District, which includes Inglewood and parts of Los Angeles. Waters received nearly 83% of the vote in the unofficial tally as of Nov. 10.
The distinction will come with the departure of another Black woman who entered Congress in 1991. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, 89, who represents the District of Columbia as a nonvoting member of the House, is serving out her term after choosing to retire. D.C. voters elected Council member Robert White Jr. to succeed her. Waters is already the oldest woman among voting members of Congress.
From Head Start to the halls of Congress
Born in St. Louis in 1938, Waters worked as a teacher and a Head Start volunteer coordinator before serving in the California State Assembly. There, she pushed California to pull state pension investments out of apartheid-era South Africa. She won her first congressional election in 1990 and took office the following January. She went on to lead the Congressional Black Caucus and, in 2019, became the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to chair the House Financial Services Committee.
Waters’ public profile has often come from confrontations in Washington. But her work on housing goes back to her years representing South Los Angeles. After the 1992 unrest, she brought federal officials to her district to press for resources. This year, as the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, she helped negotiate a bipartisan housing package with Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tim Scott of South Carolina. The measure became law in July.
What another term could mean for housing and credit
The new housing law is designed to expand the supply of affordable homes, update federal housing programs and improve access to homeownership. Its implementation gives Waters a concrete issue to pursue in her next term. Oversight hearings can help establish whether federal agencies are carrying out the changes Congress approved and whether those changes are reaching renters and first-time buyers in communities facing high housing costs.
Waters has also challenged proposed changes to enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, which encourages banks to help meet the credit needs of the communities they serve, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. In September, she and other Democrats on the committee asked federal banking regulators to give the public more time to review the proposal. For communities where access to mortgages and small-business financing remains a concern, those rules can shape what banks get credit for doing and where they direct their lending.
When Waters returns in January, the age distinction will draw attention to how long she has served. Her next term will also give constituents a more immediate way to judge that experience. They can look at whether the housing law she helped negotiate leads to more homes they can afford and whether the lenders that serve their neighborhoods make it easier to buy a home or finance a business.
