district residence succeeded birth_place imagesize term_end preceded birth_date term_start state_legislature article_title state occupation alma_mater
9th omaha , nebraska sara howard douglas county , nebraska 150px 2013 chip maxwell 24 june 1945 2005 nebraska gwen howard
 nebraska social worker university of nebraska
gwen howard

gwen e. howard -lrb- born 1945 -rrb- is a politician from the u.s. state of nebraska .
she served two terms in the nebraska legislature , from 2005 to 2013 , representing an omaha district .
howard was born gwen e. middaugh , on june 24 , 1945 , in douglas county , nebraska .
she graduated from omaha benson high school in 1963 .
in 1967 , she received a degree in sociology and psychology from midland lutheran college ; in 1974 , a master 's degree in social work from the university of nebraska omaha .
she married david howard , who was killed in a car accident in 1981 ; and had two daughters , carrie howard and sara howard .
she worked as a social worker and adoption specialist .
in 2004 , howard ran for the nebraska legislature from the 9th district , consisting of a portion of midtown omaha .
incumbent chip maxwell , a member of the republican party , had decided to run for the douglas county board of commissioners rather than seeking re-election .
in the nonpartisan primary , democrat howard received 43 % of the vote ; republican scott knudsen , a republican mortgage banker who had unsuccessfully run for the seat in 2000 , received 32 % ; and r. anthony metz received 25 % .
as the top two vote-getters , howard and knudsen moved on to the general election , in which howard won the seat , with 56.7 % of the vote to knudsen 's 43.3 % .
in 2008 , howard ran unopposed for re-election to her seat in the legislature .
during her legislative career , howard served as vice-chairperson of the education committee and the committee on committees ; she also sat on the health and human services committee and the intergovernmental cooperation committee , and as one of nebraska 's seven commissioners in the interstate education commission of the states .
nebraska 's term-limits law left howard ineligible to run for a third consecutive term in the legislature in 2012 .
she ran for the 2nd district seat in the u.s. congress , held by republican lee terry .
in the democratic primary , she lost to douglas county treasurer john ewing , taking 38 % of the vote to ewing 's 62 % .
ewing lost the general election , with 49.2 % of the vote to incumbent terry 's 50.8 % .
meanwhile , howard 's daughter , sara howard , ran for the seat that howard was vacating .
sara , a democrat , came in first in the three-way nonpartisan primary , and defeated republican erica fish in the general election .
in 2014 , howard was elected to an at-large seat on the metropolitan utilities district -lrb- mud -rrb- board .
mud is a publicly owned utility that provides water and natural gas to the omaha metropolitan area .
