Mary Jo Kilroy (born April 30, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Ohio's 15th congressional district from 2009 until 2011.

[3][5] In 1988, as chairman of her local branch of the National Lawyers Guild, Kilroy signed a letter urging Columbus Mayor Dana G. Rinehart to support an order in favor of creating an equal employment opportunity chief to handle race relations issues in the Columbus Division of Police.

[6] In 1991, she ran for an eighteen-person contest for four Columbus School Board seats on a platform that included proposing to lengthen the scholastic day from six and a half hours to eight.

[5] On November 5, 1991, she placed behind incumbent Columbus School Board President, Sharlene Morgan, natural resources expert Robert Teater, past board member Bill Moss, which made her the fourth among the eighteen candidates and the final elected member.

[18] The board oversees the Franklin County government's $1.3 billion budget and programs that range from child welfare to job training to minor league baseball.

Also, Kilroy was named the Public Official of the Year by the Central Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers as a result of her role in creating the Columbus/Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust.

As of mid-October, the race was generally considered to be a toss-up largely due to incumbent representative Pryce's leadership in the Republican Party.

[32] However, Pryce was vulnerable due to Ohio Republican Party (Bob Taft and Bob Ney) scandals,[33] the lagging Ohio economy,[34] her association with controversial Dennis Hastert and Mark Foley,[32][34][35][36] and backlash to Republican support of the Iraq War.

[44] After Foley resigned following the page scandal, Kilroy attacked Pryce with the conservative religious voters.

"[48] The debate was attended by 400 people at the Ohio State University Fawcett Center and reporters from as far away as Ireland.

[53][54] On Monday November 27, nearly three weeks after Election Day, Pryce was declared the winner by a 1,054 vote margin that mandated a recount.

[55] After two recounts and all of the votes were counted, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R) prevailed over Democratic challenger Mary Jo Kilroy.

[29][56] Kilroy felt her campaign was slowed by the early candidacy of fellow Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks, who eventually withdrew.

She ran against Republican Steve Stivers, a state senator from the 16th District, Libertarian Mark M. Noble, and Independent candidate Don Elijah Eckhart.

[62] In April 2008, the Sierra Club again endorsed Kilroy's candidacy due to her history of environmental advocacy and Stivers' contributions from energy and tobacco companies.

[64] During the campaign, Kilroy linked Stivers to big business, bank lobbyists, predatory lending and the financial crisis.

[65][66] On November 25, 2008, Madison and Union counties concluded their absentee, military, and provisional ballot counting and Stivers claimed a net gain resulting in a 594-vote lead.

On December 7, 2008, Franklin County Election Canvassers completed their final ballot count, which included absentee, military, and provisional ballots received within ten days of Election Day, giving Kilroy a victory margin of 2,311 votes over Stivers.

[72] The race was one of the most closely watched in the United States House of Representatives elections, 2010,[73][74] and it included a third party candidate.

[74] Time accurately predicted that Kilroy might have trouble in her historically Republican district given the electoral backlash to spending by the Obama Administration and because of her mostly party line voting record.

[83] Kilroy helped shape the Congressional Bill on executive pay that eventually became law by proposing an amendment requiring large institutional investors to reveal how they vote the shares that they own on pay proposals affecting companies that issued those shares.

[84] While serving her first term, she felt attached to the cause of health care reform because it had been an emphasis in her electoral platform.