Representative Enid Greene Waldholtz

Enid Greene Mickelsen, formerly Enid Greene Waldholtz (born June 5, 1958), is an American politician and attorney from the state of Utah who served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1997. A member of the Republican Party, she was the third woman and the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Utah. No woman was elected to Congress from Utah from her retirement in 1997 until Mia Love’s election in 2014. During her single term in office, she participated in the legislative process as a member of the House of Representatives and represented the interests of her constituents during a significant period in American political history.

Greene was born in San Rafael, California, to D. Forrest Greene, a naval officer and financier, and Gerda Marie Beyer. One of five children, she was raised in a family that valued public service and education. Her family later settled in Utah, where she attended East High School in Salt Lake City. She went on to the University of Utah, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980. Pursuing a legal career, she enrolled at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 1983, establishing the academic foundation for her later work in law, politics, and public service.

After completing her legal education, Greene worked as an attorney in Utah’s private and corporate sectors. She served as a lawyer for the software company Novell, gaining experience in the emerging technology industry, and later practiced at a law firm in Salt Lake City. Her abilities in law and policy led to her appointment as deputy chief of staff to Utah Governor Norman H. Bangerter, where she was involved in state-level administration and political strategy. She also became active in Republican politics nationally, serving as chair of the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF). Earlier in her political career, she and future Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. served as co-directors of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign in Utah, further solidifying her role within the Republican Party.

While serving as chair of the Young Republican National Federation, Greene met political operative Joe Waldholtz, and the two soon entered into a relationship. Greene first sought a seat in Congress in 1992, running as the Republican candidate for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, which at that time was entirely contained within Salt Lake County. She faced Democratic incumbent Karen Shepherd and lost the race by approximately four percentage points. In 1993, she married Joe Waldholtz and took the name Enid Greene Waldholtz. Two years later, in 1994, she mounted a rematch against Shepherd, with Joe Waldholtz serving as her campaign manager. Her campaign spent approximately $2 million, making it the most expensive House race in the nation that year, and she was swept into office as part of the Republican landslide that created the 104th Congress.

Enid Greene Waldholtz took office on January 3, 1995, as the Representative from Utah’s 2nd District and served until January 3, 1997. During her term in Congress, she was appointed to the influential House Rules Committee, becoming the first freshman member named to that committee in more than 80 years, a notable distinction in her early legislative career. In March 1995, she announced that she was pregnant, and later that year she became the second member of the House of Representatives ever to give birth while in office, following Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, and the first Republican to do so. Her tenure coincided with the early years of the Republican majority under Speaker Newt Gingrich, and she participated in the legislative and oversight work of the House during that period.

Her congressional service, however, was overshadowed by a major financial and political scandal involving her 1994 campaign. Investigations revealed that almost $1.8 million of the money spent in that campaign had come from her husband, Joe Waldholtz, who had embezzled nearly $4 million from her father, D. Forrest Greene. In November 1995, Waldholtz disappeared for six days before surrendering to authorities, drawing intense national media attention. During this period, Enid Greene Waldholtz announced that she was filing for divorce, seeking custody of their daughter, and petitioning to resume the name Enid Greene. Reports in the national press, including The Washington Post, indicated that Waldholtz was addicted to heroin. Under mounting pressure from Utah Republican leaders and amid ongoing investigations into campaign finance violations, she announced on March 5, 1996, that she would not seek re-election to Congress. Joe Waldholtz later pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax, bank, and campaign fraud, and, while on parole, was subsequently convicted of forging insurance and Veterans Affairs checks belonging to his stepmother and his late father, for which he received a sentence of three to fifteen years in prison.

Following her departure from Congress in January 1997, Greene gradually returned to public life and Republican Party politics in Utah. By 2003, she had reestablished herself within the state party and was elected vice chair of the Utah Republican Party. In 2004, she ran for lieutenant governor of Utah on a ticket headed by gubernatorial candidate Nolan Karras; their ticket was defeated in the Republican primary, receiving about 34 percent of the vote. After that primary loss, she continued her party leadership work and again served as vice chair of the Utah Republican Party. In November 2006, she became acting chair of the state party following the resignation of Joe Cannon, and in February 2007 she was unanimously elected to serve as state party chair until the next convention in June 2007.

In her later life, Enid Greene continued to play a role in national Republican politics and in civic affairs. She remarried in 2008 to Scott J. Mickelsen, then a sheriff’s deputy and later a judge, and thereafter has been known as Enid Greene Mickelsen. She served as a delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention, reflecting her ongoing engagement in national party activities. She later chaired the Republican National Convention Site Selection Committee for the 2016 convention and was appointed by Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus as chair of the 2016 Republican Convention Rules Committee, placing her at the center of key organizational and procedural decisions for the party’s national gathering. Throughout her career, from her early legal work and state service to her term in Congress and subsequent party leadership roles, she has remained a prominent figure in Utah Republican politics and in the broader history of women in the United States House of Representatives.