Deborah O'Malley

Deborah O’Malley (born March 18, 1964) was born in Chicago on March 18th, 1964. She had always been interested in politics as a young girl, and she really got involved in the ‘90s when she began volunteering with local campaign offices in Illinois.

She finally decided to run for office in 2002 because she believed that she could help the Labor party in the House. A member of the Labor party and her district being Illinois’ fifth, Deborah won her election bid in ‘02 and still holds that seat today. She was quickly noticed by some establishment Laborites in the House, like the former Labor House Leader, Pauline Ryan, who ended up becoming her good friend.

In 2003, though, Pauline suffered a stroke on the House floor, which meant a new House Leader was needed for the Labor party. Deborah, after working closely with Ms. Ryan, decided to throw her hat in the ring and run. Many were skeptical about electing a freshman Representative to be the House Leader for a major US party, but nevertheless, Deborah was elected to be Labor’s House Leader in the 2003 internal election. She has retained this position since then.

After the 2004 general election and the newly elected Labor majority in the House, Deborah was poised to become the nation’s first female Speaker of the House. She served as Speaker for one term, from 2005 to 2007, and acted as a bipartisan leader in the narrowly divided Congress. During her time as Speaker, Deborah worked on getting the Teal New Deal passed in the House. This included making sure bills were correctly formatted and that every Laborite had their proxy vote sent in should they be absent for a vote on any TND bill. She also passed new House rules as Speaker, including one that allotted time to 3rd parties during debates, another that created bill quality guidelines, and one that lowered the requirements for a quorum. The quorum rule change was deemed necessary after the GOP tried to block the TND from passing the House by abusing the old quorum requirements and forcing the House into a recess.

Deborah has also made clear her commitment to her current chamber. She’s said that, even after each state receives another seat in the Senate, she won’t retire as a Representative and run for Illinois’ 2nd Senate seat. “Too many political figures use the House as a stepping stone to a Senatorial or Presidential run,” she said. “I’m not going to do that; I’ve been elected to the House and I’ve been elected as my party’s House leader. I’m here for the long haul. You have my word on that.”