Representative Jean Spencer Ashbrook

Emily Jean Ashbrook (née Spencer; born September 21, 1934) is a former American politician who served as a Republican Representative from Ohio in the United States Congress from 1981 to 1983, completing the final term of office of her late husband, Congressman John M. Ashbrook. A member of the Republican Party, she contributed to the legislative process during one term in office and represented Ohio’s 17th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from June 29, 1982, to January 3, 1983.

Ashbrook was born Emily Jean Spencer on September 21, 1934, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She spent much of her youth in Newark, Ohio, where she attended Central School and later Newark High School, graduating in 1952. She pursued higher education at Ohio State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1956. While at Ohio State, she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, an affiliation that reflected her early engagement in campus and community life.

In 1974, she married John M. Ashbrook, a prominent conservative Republican congressman from Ohio who had long represented the state’s 17th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Their marriage placed her in close proximity to national politics and the workings of Congress, and she became familiar with her husband’s strongly conservative philosophy and his role within the Republican Party. John Ashbrook’s sudden death on April 24, 1982, created a vacancy in the House seat he had held for many years and set the stage for her direct entry into elective office.

Following her husband’s death, Jean Spencer Ashbrook sought to complete his unexpired term in Congress. In keeping with a pattern in American political history in which widows sometimes succeed their late husbands in office, she ran as a Republican candidate in the special election to fill the vacancy in Ohio’s 17th congressional district. She won that election and entered Congress during the 97th Congress, formally taking her seat on June 29, 1982. Her service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when debates over economic policy, national security, and the role of the federal government were especially prominent.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Ashbrook participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of her constituents in Ohio’s 17th district. She publicly stated that her principal ambition in office was “to carry on John’s conservative philosophy,” and she aligned herself closely with the Reagan administration. During her tenure, she served on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, where she took part in legislative oversight and policy discussions related to maritime affairs and related federal responsibilities. Although her time in office was brief, she used it to advance a legislative agenda consistent with her late husband’s views and the broader conservative movement of the period.

Ashbrook spoke out for her views on law enforcement, criminal justice, economic development, and foreign policy. She introduced a bill that would have denied federal law enforcement jurisdiction to implement gun control ordinances, reflecting a strong defense of Second Amendment rights and a preference for limiting federal involvement in local matters. She also proposed legislation prescribing mandatory minimum sentences for federal felonies committed against senior citizens, underscoring her concern for the protection of vulnerable older Americans. In the economic sphere, she supported the Enterprise Zone Tax Act of 1982, which sought to stimulate investment and job creation in economically distressed areas through targeted tax incentives. In foreign and ideological affairs, she backed a bill aimed at educating citizens on the dangers of communism and promoting democracy abroad, consistent with the anti-communist priorities of many conservatives during the Cold War.

Jean Spencer Ashbrook’s congressional service concluded with the end of the 97th Congress on January 3, 1983, after which she did not seek a full term in her own right. Her brief tenure nonetheless placed her among the women who have served in the United States House of Representatives and added to the historical record of widows who have stepped forward to complete their husbands’ terms in Congress. In later years, she remained associated with the community in Newark, Ohio, where she has continued to reside, maintaining ties to the region she and her husband long represented and served.