Florence Price Dwyer was a political pioneer, elected to Congress at a time when women were rarely participating in the general workforce outside of teaching. A Republican, Florence Dwyer had long been active in local politics before taking the plunge to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Born on the Fourth of July, Flo Dwyer was an independent woman her entire life. A self-described “progressive and moderate Republican,” she proved to be unbeatable inside the Sixth Congressional District of New Jersey. Throughout her public service, Florence Dwyer’s telephone number was listed in the telephone book. Dwyer had built her formidable personal popularity with her district through hard work and always following up on requests. Well before Bella Abzug of New York, Flo Dwyer of New Jersey was known for her “colorful and extravagant hats.” Years later, a former aide said of his ex-boss, “She runs her campaigns on the basis of one word: performance. There are no gimmicks, no magic. She stands on her record.”
Matthew Rinaldo, Dwyer’s successor in the U.S. House of Representatives, while eulogizing his predecessor, reminded his listeners of the assemblywoman raising eyebrows as she argued on behalf of consumer protection laws by setting a flammable child’s dress on fire. She made her point.
One local politico attributed his own election to the strong ticket headed by the combination of U.S. Senator Clifford Case and Congresswoman Flo Dwyer, saying it was “like following the Pope and St. Peter into heaven.”
“I guess it’s because I built up confidence in my work. I always kept close contact back home and read my mail,” Dwyer explained. “And my office was always open to anyone with a problem.”
Florence Dwyer enjoyed campaigning as much or more than she did holding office. “I guess you could call it being a people to people candidate,” Dwyer opined. “I loved campaigning and used to walk along the streets and talk to constituents. Some people couldn’t believe it.”
Flo Dwyer did not campaign as a complete partisan, but rather as a competent public servant. Dwyer championed consumer protection laws, higher ethical standards for members of Congress, and urban mass transportation, as well as equal rights and equal pay for women. Dwyer knew the people she served, once observing, “I represent a very independent district, and I’m an independent Republican.”
New Jersey had long before sent a woman to Congress when Frank Hague, boss of the highly potent Hudson County machine, sent Mary Teresa Norton to Washington, D. C., where she remained in the U.S. House of Representatives for 26 years and became the first woman to chair a major committee of the House. Flo Dwyer was the first Republican woman to be elected by the people of New Jersey.
At the end of her career and life, Dwyer proudly noted that women were no longer content to merely volunteer in campaigns. “They want to become involved in making policy,” Dwyer said with real satisfaction.
Bright and talented, Dwyer attended the University of Toledo and Rutgers University. While in Toledo, she met and married the university’s football coach, Michael J. Dwyer, who later worked for 31 years as the director of public relations for the Western Electric Company.
Dwyer had blazed a trail herself, winning election as a delegate to the 1944 Republican National Convention before becoming a lobbyist for the New Jersey Women’s Business and Professional Clubs. In 1949, Dwyer won election to the New Jersey General Assembly, where she continued to serve until challenging Congressman Harrison A. Williams in the 1956 election. The two had tangled politically previously when Williams had run against the assemblywoman in her 1951 reelection campaign. Williams had won a 1953 special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Clifford Case. Williams had been elected to a full term in 1954 before facing Florence Dwyer in 1956. Mrs. Dwyer proved to be a strong candidate and unseated the young congressman, winning by 4,399 votes out of more than 208,000 ballots cast. From that time forward, Congresswoman Florence P. Dwyer demonstrated her hold on her district by repeatedly being reelected by increasing margins. Following a relatively close election in 1958 in a terrible year for Republican candidates nationally, Dwyer’s majorities became very strong, usually reaching around 60% or better. Toward the end of her years in the House, Mrs. Dwyer was reelected by more than 70% of the vote.
New Jersey Republicans so thoroughly believed in Flo Dwyer’s campaigning skills and ability that they repeatedly pressed her to run against Senator Harrison Williams, who had become a widely popular figure in New Jersey. Content to remain in the House, Mrs. Dwyer always politely refused the GOP leadership’s entreaties to run statewide. One person who breathed easier at her refusal to run was Harrison Williams, whom Dwyer had beaten twice before.
Harrison Williams would go on to be elected to the United States Senate before his career ended in shame and scandal in the Abscam affair, but he recalled Florence P. Dwyer when she died. “She was a superlative campaigner, and notwithstanding our political opposition, we had a warm and most pleasant friendship.”
During her time in the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Flo Dwyer continued her work on legislation to protect consumers and support equal rights for women. She became a vociferous opponent of the war in Vietnam. As a Republican in New Jersey, Dwyer was also outspoken in her support for urban renewal and mass transit.
In 1972, Congresswoman Florence Dwyer made the decision not to run for reelection. It was a difficult decision, made after pondering the changes made in her constituency through redistricting. The redistricting plan had been drawn by a court, and Mrs. Dwyer was not happy with the results. Still, Flo Dwyer had also been ill for several weeks during the early part of 1972 prior to making her decision. Sixty-nine years old at the time, Dwyer announced she would complete her term but would not be a candidate for reelection. Dwyer cited spending more time with her family and said that she would “devote myself to a number of matters which have not received my attention during my years in Congress.” The congresswoman readily acknowledged her decision not to run again had been reached “with some reluctance.”
From the moment she announced her impending retirement from the House of Representatives, friends and supporters threw countless parties to honor her. Friends in New Jersey organized fifteen different appreciation dinners for Dwyer. After leaving office, the former congresswoman busied herself by sorting through the official papers accumulated during her 16 years in Congress, which were donated to Newark State College, along with her desk chair from her office in the Rayburn House Office Building.
Flo Dwyer’s last campaign was not her own, but rather that of Matthew Rinaldo, the GOP nominee to succeed her in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rinaldo was elected and remained in Congress for 20 years.
Asked if she missed the hectic pace of life and service in Washington, D. C., Dwyer replied, “I don’t miss Washington, but I do miss my friends there and in some respects the challenges of the work there – – – but not enough to regret that I left.” Dwyer acknowledged that she had enjoyed the opportunity to slow down. “I don’t have to be on the floor for hours of committee meetings, and there’s no voluminous homework at night.”
“But just because I’m retired from Congress doesn’t mean that I’ve lost interest in politics,” Dwyer said, laughing. “Once it gets into your blood, it never gets out.”
After coming home to Elizabeth, New Jersey, Florence Dwyer lived in the same modest house her husband had built 40 years previously. Free from her congressional responsibilities, Dwyer relished the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely breakfast as she pored over the still abundant stacks of mail she received daily.
Four months into a well-deserved retirement, former Congresswoman Florence Dwyer was summoned back to public duty. Dwyer was named as one of four state commissioners charged with administering New Jersey’s new campaign disclosure act. “People have been very good to me,” Dwyer told a newsman, “electing me for so many years, so I thought it only fitting to pay them back in service.” “There’s no salary for this job and that’s the way it should be,” the former congresswoman told the reporter. Dwyer had long advocated for accurate disclosure of campaign funding and said she was hopeful the new law would “be able to stop some of the shadier aspects of campaigning” and give people more confidence in government and elected officials.
At the time of her appointment, the country was undergoing a significant event from which public confidence never recovered: the Watergate scandal. Never since have the American people looked at government or public officials in the same way. Richard Nixon was even then under fire, but the pressure had yet to reach its crescendo.
“During my last year in Congress, the President was building his reputation as a world leader, paying less attention to domestic affairs,” Dwyer recalled.
Dwyer remained a force in New Jersey politics, especially within the confines of her former congressional district. Flo Dwyer announced her support for Governor William T. Cahill’s bid for renomination in the Republican primary. Cahill was being challenged in the primary by the very conservative congressman, Charles Sandman. Cahill and Dwyer had served in Congress for eleven years together and the two admired one another.
Several of Mrs. Dwyer’s congressional staff, including her longtime Chief of Staff, Frank Keenan, were kept by Matt Rinaldo when he assumed her seat in 1973. Throughout the year, Mrs. Dwyer was still being honored by organizations and groups as well as citizens grateful for her service. The former congresswoman was the honored guest when the Richmond Towers Apartments was renamed for her, a project for which she had helped along through her congressional service. The Greater Plainfield Senior Citizens Center held an open house and honored the former congresswoman for her past work on behalf of New Jersey seniors.
Later in 1973, Mrs. Dwyer resigned from the state board governing campaign financial disclosures. Dwyer was a constant presence at GOP gatherings following her retirement from Congress and maintained her open telephone number. The former congresswoman also continued to make endorsements and offer support for various GOP officials and candidates in her old congressional district and New Jersey.
When Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon as president and had to choose a vice president, Flo Dwyer fired off a telegram to her former House colleague urging he select New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, whom she believed “would complement your refreshing openness, candor and moral leadership and bring prestige to a great new Republican administration.” Rockefeller was especially well known in New Jersey as the elected four-term governor of neighboring New York.
Almost to the end of her life, Florence Dwyer remained faithful to her political party, returning the support she had received by supporting others. In October of 1975, Dwyer issued endorsements of candidates for the New Jersey General Assembly for the fall campaign in her former congressional district.
By 1975, Florence P. Dwyer was seriously ailing, and her public profile all but disappeared as she concentrated on her own health issues. The former congresswoman, suffering from diabetes, had to undergo the amputation of a leg below the knee, from which she never really recovered. The amputation had become necessary due to poor circulation. Following the surgery, Mrs. Dwyer was reported to be in only “fair” condition. Later reports issued declared the former congresswoman to be in “poor” condition. Dwyer remained in failing health until her death on February 29, 1976.
The Passaic Herald-News remembered Florence Dwyer as “tireless, warmhearted, and gregarious” who “knew how to temper zeal with pragmatism and good nature.”
Former staff members and interns filed past the coffin of the former congresswoman as New Jersey mourned the passing of Flo Dwyer. Senator Cliff Case came by, as did Dwyer’s sometime opponent, Senator Harrison Williams. Florence Dwyer had been a woman to be reckoned with. © 2026 Ray Hill
