CLEVELAND — Marcia Fudge's long political road from Warrensville Heights City Hall, to the U.S. Capitol, and finally in the cabinet of the Biden administration will officially come to an end on Friday.
But as she steps away from her role as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Fudge granted an exclusive Cleveland interview with 3News' Leon Bibb.
When she announced her departure earlier this month, Fudge stated that she was resigning, but did not specify why she was leaving HUD. During her interview with Bibb, she clarified that her step away from politics is a sign of her retirement from public life.
"I think that I have done this long enough and I think that it's just time...time to come home," Fudge told Bibb.
During her political career, the 71-year-old Fudge served in a variety of roles. She was the mayor of Warrensville Heights for eight years, then was tapped to replace the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones in Congress after her death in 2008. Fudge was elected to seven terms in the House of Representatives representing the Cleveland area in Ohio's 11th Congressional District.
Upon his election in 2020, President Joe Biden selected Fudge to serve as the nation's 18th Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March of 2021.
Fudge noted several key accomplishments during her time at the helm of HUD:
- Helped more than two million families stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure
- Removed barriers for people with student loan debt trying to buy a home with an FHA mortgage
- Funded more than 2 million units of public housing and multifamily housing
- Served or permanently housed more than 1.2 million people experiencing homelessness
"Dealing with the homelessness issue was huge for me. It is a crisis everywhere," she told Bibb. Fudge also noted her commitment to ensure that communities like Cleveland received "their fair share of federal resources."
Will Fudge truly be able to stay out of the political arena once she gets home? Will we see her name on a ballot again?
"If you see my name on a ballot, call me and tell me to stop," she said laughing. "No, I don't plan to run for anything else."
You can watch Leon Bibb's full interview with HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge in the player below.