After Marty Meehan resigned in 2007 to serve as Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Lowell , Tsongas ran in the special election . She 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 from that state since the 1983 retirement of Margaret Heckler , who became Secretary of Health and Human Services under Ronald Reagan
Democratic nomination in 1992
1992 Democratic National Convention
Niki Tsongas