ICE No. 2 steps down to launch run for battleground House district in Ohio

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan on Thursday resigned her post and launched a campaign for Congress in Ohio, jumping into a crowded Republican primary for a seat that became more GOP-friendly after a recent redistricting push.

In a video announcing her campaign launch, Sheahan highlighted her time at ICE and slammed Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the Ohio congresswoman whom she’s aiming to unseat.

“In less than one year at ICE, I’ve stopped more illegal immigration than Marcy Kaptur has in her 43 years in Washington,” Sheahan said in the video. “In Congress, hypocrisy, excuses and failure can earn you a lifetime job, but on my family farm that would put us out of business.”

“Ohio neighborhoods are safer, thanks to President [Donald] Trump and ICE,” Sheahan added later in her video.

Her campaign launch brings the number of Republicans running in the district’s primary — which is slated to take place on May 5 — to more than half a dozen.

The GOP primary field includes state Rep. Josh Williams and Derek Merrin, a former state lawmaker who was the GOP nominee against Kaptur in 2024.

A Kaptur campaign spokesperson said in a statement, “While Republicans from near and far will fight through a messy primary in this district they gerrymandered again just this fall, Congresswoman Kaptur is focused on delivering real results for her constituents. She’s working to lower costs for working families, protect access to affordable health care, and bring transformative investments to Northwest Ohio.”

House Republicans are heading into the election year with a slim majority, compounded by dozens of retirements on both sides of the aisle. Trump has expressed concern in recent days that the GOP could lose control of the House.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump told Reuters on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the president told House Republicans in a speech that Democrats would seek to impeach him if they flip control of the chamber.

Ohio’s 9th District is one that Republicans have targeted for several cycles and has consistently been a battleground district.

In 2024, Kaptur beat Merrin in the general election by less than a percentage point while Trump carried the district by a wider margin. The congresswoman is one of a handful of Democrats currently serving in a district that the president won in 2024.

During a wave of partisan redistricting across the country last year, Republicans in Ohio redrew the 9th District’s boundaries to make the seat more favorable for the GOP. Under the old district lines, Trump won Kaptur’s district by 7 percentage points, according to NBC News’ Decision Desk. But under the new district lines, Trump would have won the seat by 11 percentage points.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race in this year’s midterm elections a “Toss Up.”

In 2024, Trump endorsed Merrin ahead of the GOP primary in this district, helping propel him to victory in a small but competitive primary field. The president has not yet endorsed in this district ahead of this year’s primary election.

In her launch video and her resignation letter Thursday, Sheahan highlighted her work with the Trump administration and her ties to the president.

“When the call came to help President Trump clean up the dangerous immigration mess, as Deputy Director of ICE, I answered the call,” Sheahan said in the video, highlighting her role in the Trump administration’s push to hire thousands of new ICE agents as part of a crackdown on immigration.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com