If she succeeds in next week’s hotly contested primary in New York’s 10th Congressional District, Elizabeth Holtzman would be poised to return to Capitol Hill after a roughly 40-year hiatus.

Her experience is part of her pitch, though Washington is a different place than it was in the 1970s when she first arrived.

Holtzman shook up New York politics almost half a century ago, ousting a long-time incumbent congressman to become, at the time, the youngest woman elected to the House.

She first got to Capitol Hill in 1973, and immediately hit a speed bump.

“They put me on the House Judiciary Committee, against my will. I was kind of downcast about that,” she said in an interview.

But of course, it was that chance assignment that would thrust her into a historic spotlight as the House pursued articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

If she wins the election, she would join a body still dealing with the fallout of another crisis: the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Holtzman offered praise for the special committee investigating the attack, arguing they seem to have taken a page from their Nixon-era probe.

“The American people — or at least the Republicans — wouldn’t be paying attention unless they had Republicans speaking to them. And that’s what they did,” she said. “And that’s what happened, essentially, in the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment process.”

Washington has evolved since Holtzman left the Hill, and there are things, she says, that she would like to see change, including cutting back on money in politics and giving individual committee chairs more power and independence to set their own agendas.

Then there is the matter of polarization.

Holtzman says building up goodwill through respect is one of the key tools of the trade on Capitol Hill.

But with Republicans and Democrats now often at loggerheads, arguably more than ever before, is that toolkit still effective?

“I think the skills that I learned and that perspective that I had, while not necessarily 100 percent transferable, is partially transferable and is useful,” Holtzman said.