Former Ambassador Cronin connects with Women Elected Municipal Officials

Claire Cronin, a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, spoke about her experience in elected office in Massachusetts before reaching the global stage during the Women Elected Municipal Officials annual leadership conference in Sturbridge on March 27.

Cronin recalled her uncles who served in elected office at both the local and state levels.

“It was just instilled in us very early on that, you know, you can be a part of the solution, not the problem, be involved in the community, and that public service was actually a noble field,” Cronin said.

Although she worked on political campaigns, she didn’t see politics as a path for herself — until 2012, when a legislative seat opened up in the district representing her hometown of Brockton and Easton, where she was raising a family. She won, and served in the House from 2013 to 2022.

An attorney, Cronin served as co-chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary — the first woman to do so — from 2017 to 2021, during which time the Legislature reformed the state’s criminal justice laws, including raising the age at which a child can be arrested.

“There’s data that shows that the earlier one enters the criminal justice system, the more likely they are to stay in it and then go on to the adult system,” Cronin said. “So that one little piece of legislation … stops a trajectory.”

The effort was controversial because people had strong opinions on criminal justice laws, she said. The key was finding balance. She invited every member of the House to meet with her, and by the end she knew everyone’s top three priorities for the bill. She said the support she had in the House helped during conference committee negotiations with the Senate as well.

“We would be in session, never would go home, and I would be there late at night,” she said. “But at the end of it, we got it done. So I’m really, really proud of that.”

The committee also tackled police reform, creating the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.

“My guiding thought … was, I want to create an agency that if someone complains about a police officer, that police officer gets a fair shake,” Cronin said. “But also, the person complaining needs to get a fair shake. So that was really difficult. … It requires listening, not talking.”

She also became the first woman to serve as majority leader in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, from 2021 to 2022. What helped get her there, she said, was “a track record of not just delivering small pieces of legislation, but very big ones that got through.”

Cronin said she was fortunate that her children were older when she first ran for office — one in college and the other in high school. But her husband traveled frequently for work. She ultimately missed some moments, like her daughter preparing for the prom, which weighed on her.

“I remember I was running in my primary against three guys, and then I was running against another guy in my final election,” Cronin said. “And people would say, ‘What do you need?’ I’d be like, ‘I need a wife.’”

When Cronin first got involved in the presidential campaign of Joe Biden — in 2018, before he had announced — she did not expect that it would result in being appointed ambassador to Ireland.

Cronin said she had been trying to figure out how to get involved in the campaign when she got a text from her husband, who was sitting directly behind Biden on a commercial flight. Cronin urged her husband to pass Biden a note, and following a conversation after the plane landed, Biden called her that night. She stayed in touch with his staff, and hosted his first fundraiser in Massachusetts. His transition team later asked her to submit a resume, and asked her to serve as ambassador.

“Being an ambassador, I did a lot of the same things that I did as a state representative,” Cronin said. “Just at a global level instead of a local or state level.”

Cronin felt welcomed into the role by the Irish because she was just a regular politician, and not a wealthy donor.

“The people in the Irish government literally considered me one of their own,” Cronin said.

She worked on a number of issues, including the beginning of the war in Ukraine, human trafficking in the fishing industry, and drug cartels, Cronin focused on connecting with students and building on strong economic ties between the Irelands and the United States.

“When I arrived in Ireland, it was the ninth-largest foreign direct investor in the United States — think of that, a country of 5 million people, fewer than in Massachusetts,” Cronin said. “When I left, we jumped to sixth, and that’s something we worked really hard at at the embassy, creating those relationships with Irish companies to get them to invest in the United States.”

Every week, Cronin would invite groups of up to 100 students to her ambassador residence for a tour and town hall to talk about what ambassadors do. She said she would give each student the paperwork for a J-1 visa.

In response to questions from WEMO attendees, Cronin shared anecdotes from her time in the Legislature and offered advice for staying connected to constituents and making sure women’s voices are heard in male-dominated environments.

During the WEMO conference, attendees also engaged in an “empty chair” panel discussion, inviting volunteers to answer questions about their biggest wins while in office, how they make sure underrepresented voices in their communities are being heard, and how to find allies in their work.