Election 2026
Independent, source-first accountability
Issue record
In short
Kaptur's campaign backs secure borders and legal immigration and says she voted to hire more than 10,000 border agents. Merrin's campaign lists no immigration position on the pages checked. On the record, Kaptur voted in 2025 for two border security bills and three times for fentanyl bills, and all passed the House. No vote this Congress was found on hiring 10,000 agents, and earlier Congresses were not checked.
Campaign positions
Her campaign says she believes in secure borders and legal immigration, and that she has voted to expand border security, to hire more than ten thousand border agents, and for the 2024 Senate immigration plan negotiated by Senator James Lankford.
No immigration position was found on the campaign site reviewed for this comparison. That site is a single page carrying a biography, a donation form and a contact form, and its only internal link is a privacy policy.
Evidence timeline
official action
She voted for the HALT Fentanyl Act twice and the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act in 2025, and all three passed the House.
Her campaign says she has voted to lock up drug traffickers bringing fentanyl into her communities. The House Clerk records her voting Yea three times in the 119th Congress on measures of that kind: the HALT Fentanyl Act as H.R. 27 on February 6, 2025 (Roll Call 33), the same Act as S. 331 on June 12, 2025 (Roll Call 166), and the Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act of 2025 on September 2, 2025 (Roll Call 220). All three passed the House. Limit: Three recorded votes in the current Congress, not a score of her whole record on drug policy, and the check does not cover earlier Congresses. What a scheduling or penalty bill does in practice is not something a roll call shows.
official action
She voted for both border security bills that got a recorded vote in 2025, and no vote this Congress was found on hiring 10,000 agents or a military presence at the border.
Her campaign says she has voted to improve and expand border security, to hire more than ten thousand border agents, and to allow a military presence at the border if needed. Two border-security measures reached a recorded vote in the 119th Congress and she voted Yea on both, on March 10, 2025: the Subterranean Border Defense Act (Roll Call 63) and the Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act (Roll Call 65). Both passed. No vote in this Congress was found on hiring ten thousand border agents or on a military presence at the border. Limit: The claim bundles three things and the current Congress's record carries the first. The other two were not located in it, and this check covered the 119th Congress only — she has served since 1983, so a vote from an earlier Congress would not appear here and is not ruled out.
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Marcy Kaptur for Congress · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Campaign-controlled source. Positions are attributed, not independently verified facts.
candidate statement
For: Marcy Kaptur: campaign position; Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated record claim; Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated direction
Derek Merrin for Congress · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Campaign-controlled source and the whole of the campaign's site: it is one page whose only internal link is a privacy policy. Positions and record claims are attributed, not independently verified facts. The domain merrinforcongress.com is a registrar parking page and is not the campaign's site.
candidate statement
For: Derek Merrin: campaign position
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Recorded vote of February 6, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
official legislative record
For: Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated record claim
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Recorded vote of June 12, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
official legislative record
For: Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated record claim
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Recorded vote of September 2, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
official legislative record
For: Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated record claim
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Recorded vote of March 10, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
official legislative record
For: Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated direction
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · Reviewed Sep 20, 2026
Recorded vote of March 10, 2025, read through the Congress.gov house-vote member list.
official legislative record
For: Marcy Kaptur: Matches stated direction