 After Marty Meehan resigned in 2007 to serve as Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell , Tsongas ran in the special election . Tsongas defeated four other candidates to win the Democratic primary with 36 % of the vote . During her initial campaign Tsongas received endorsements from The Boston Globe , the Boston Herald , and the Lowell Sun . During the general election , former President Bill Clinton , who defeated her husband for the Democratic nomination in 1992 , campaigned for her . At an event in Lowell Clinton remarked : " Congress will be a better place because she is there . " Tsongas won the special election against Republican Jim Ogonowski with 51 % of the vote on October 17 ; she became the only female Representative from Massachusetts , and the first female representative from Massachusetts since the retirement of Margaret Heckler in 1983 , who became Secretary of Health and Human Services under Ronald Reagan . 
