ICE deputy director resigns to launch GOP campaign for Congress
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ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan attends a press conference in Gary, Ind., on Oct. 30, 2025. Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images
ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan resigned Thursday and launched a House bid for an Ohio district that is a top pickup target for Republicans.
Why it matters: The 2026 midterms could hinge on races like Ohio's 9th, and Sheahan enters a crowded Republican primary as ICE battles blowback over the shooting of Renee Good.
- "President Trump deserves a Congress that stands firmly behind his agenda," Sheahan wrote in a resignation letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a copy of which was obtained by Axios.
- "For that reason, effective immediately, I respectfully submit this letter of resignation so that I may continue serving my country in a different capacity."
State of play: Sheahan is running in Ohio's 9th congressional district, held by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).
- President Trump won Kaptur's current district in the 2024 election, and mid-decade redistricting in Ohio will make it even more favorable to Republicans.
- But Kaptur, 79, has proven difficult for Republicans to dislodge, having defeated GOP challengers in 2022 and 2024 despite being seen as highly vulnerable.
Driving the news: Sheahan launched a campaign website with a video touting her ICE tenure and branding herself a "Trump conservative."
- "In less than one year at ICE, I've stopped more illegal immigration than Marcy Kaptur has in her 43 years in Washington," Sheahan says in the video.
- The 28-year-old is a district native who attended Ohio State University and worked for the Ohio Republican Party before working as political director in Noem's South Dakota gubernatorial office.
- She served for just over a year as Louisiana's secretary of wildlife and fisheries before rejoining Noem as the deputy director of ICE.
The other side: "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," Kaptur's campaign said in a statement.
- "Voters are tired of the self-dealing corruption and culture of lawlessness they've seen over the last year. They want a leader focused on affordability and real results, and Marcy Kaptur consistently works across the aisle to deliver both."
Zoom in: Sheahan joins a primary field that includes state Rep. Josh Williams and former state Rep. Derek Merrin, who lost to Kaptur in 2024.
- Some Ohio Republicans had hoped to recruit state Senate President Rob McColley, but gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy instead tapped him as his running mate.
Axios' Marc Caputo and Brittany Gibson provided reporting for this story.
