Sarah E. Morgenthau, a U.S. Commerce Department official with a prominent lineage in Democratic politics, on Thursday joined the crowded field for an open seat in Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District.
“I’m running to represent Rhode Island’s second Congressional District,” Morgenthau said in a video announcement. “These unprecedented times demand leadership with global experience, but Ocean State perspective and that’s exactly what I’ll bring to Congress.”
Although Morgenthau is not broadly known in Rhode Island, she helped raise money for President Obama’s 2008 campaign and was described by Politico as “both a public and a behind-the-scenes force” in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
Her decision to enter the CD2 field was first reported by The Public’s Radio.
Morgenthau serves as deputy assistant secretary for Travel and Tourism Industry and Analysis for the International Trade Administration. The ITA is part of the U.S. Commerce Department, led by former RI Gov. Gina Raimondo.
Morgenthau served as co-chair of the campaign of her late mother, Ruth Morgenthau, when she ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Republican Claudine Schneider in 1988. Ruth Morgenthau was known in part for her biography of John O. Pastore, the first Italian-American U.S. senator.
Sarah Morgenthau’s resume includes serving as managing director of a global investigations firm, Nardello & Co., various roles with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and director of Peace Corps Response at the Peace Corps.
In a news release, Morgenthau’s campaign said she offers “a focus on bringing her experience to work for the people of the district to lower costs, expand tourism, fight climate change and bring good jobs back. Morgenthau is recognized as a leader with both private sector and public service experience who brings people together to get things done.”
The Democrats running for the seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, who was first elected in 2000, include Omar Bah, founder of the Refugee Dream Center; strategist Joy Fox, a former staffer for Raimondo and Langevin; General Treasurer Seth Magaziner; former John Kasich supporter Michael Neary; and former state Rep. Ed Pacheco. Providence firefighter Cameron Moquin has filed paperwork for a campaign, and WPRI-TV reported Wednesday that former state Rep. David Segal is considering a run.
As Politico noted, Morgenthau is the great granddaughter of Henry Morgenthua Sr., “the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who in 1915 documented systematic atrocities against Armenians.”
Her grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Jr., who as U.S. Treasury secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pressed Roosevelt to take steps to help European Jews after hearing explicit details of the Holocaust.
As former Providence Journal columnist M. Charles Bakst noted in reporting on a PBS program in 2008, “It was January 1944, and Morgenthau succeeded in persuading FDR to create the War Refugee Board, which then took some steps to rescue Jews. The PBS program says, ‘The board helped as many as 20,000 Jews escape to sanctuaries in neutral nations.’ ”
In reporting on Sarah Morgenthau’s consideration of a CD2 run earlier this month, WPRI reported: “Morgenthau and her husband, Carlton Wessel, purchased a home in Saunderstown in 2016 that was previously owned by her parents, property records show. A 2018 article in the North Kingstown Independent said the Morgenthau family built the ‘high-end contemporary’ home in 1984 ‘as a peaceful summer getaway.’ ”
This story has been updated.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon and sign up for email delivery of his weekly RI politics newsletter.
