Charles Bernard Hoeven (March 30, 1895 – November 9, 1980) was an American politician. Elected to represent districts in northern
Iowa for eleven terms, from the
Seventy-eighth to
Eighty-eighth Congresses, in all he held elective office for forty consecutive years. He was a member of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
.
Early life and education
Hoeven was born in
Hospers, Iowa
Hospers is a city in Sioux County, Iowa, United States, along the Floyd River. The population was 718 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
Hospers was founded in 1872 when the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad was extended to that point. The ...
; his paternal grandparents were
Dutch immigrants and his maternal grandparents were
German immigrants. Hoeven attended the public schools and Alton (Iowa) High School.
During
World War I, Hoeven served in England and France as a sergeant in Company D, 350th Infantry, 88th Division, and with the Intelligence Service of the First Battalion.
He received a bachelor's degree from the
University of Iowa at Iowa City, in 1920 and a law degree from the
University of Iowa College of Law in 1922.
Political career
Hoeven was
admitted to the bar in 1922 and began to practice law in
Alton, Iowa. He was elected as County Attorney of
Sioux County, Iowa
Sioux County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,872. Its county seat is Orange City. Its largest city is Sioux Center.
History
Sioux County was formed on January 15, 1851. It has ...
in 1924, and served in that position from 1925 to 1937. Then, he was elected to the
Iowa Senate, where he served from 1937 to 1941, the last two years as
president pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
.
In 1940, Hoeven ran for the Republican nomination in
Iowa's 9th congressional district
Iowa's 9th congressional district existed from 1873 to 1943. The district was configured four times, first as part of a nine-district plan, then twice in eleven-district plans, then again in a nine-district plan. In the nine-district plans, th ...
(which was then represented by Democrat
Vincent Harrington
Vincent Francis Harrington (May 16, 1903 – November 29, 1943) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa. Harrington was commissioned in the United States Army Air Forces after the Pearl Harbor attack, resigned from Congress when Presi ...
of
Sioux City). Hoeven finished a close second to
Albert Swanson
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Albert C ...
in the primary, who in turn lost to Harrington in the general election by fewer than 2,500 votes out of over 130,000 cast. Newspapers and others speculated that, if Hoeven had won the primary, he would have defeated Harrington. Thus, when reapportionment shifted most of the old 9th district into
Iowa's 8th congressional district, Hoeven became an early front-runner for the 1942 Republican primary to run against Harrington. He won the primary, and received a significant boost when Harrington resigned his House seat and the Democratic nomination two months before the 1942 general election to serve full-time in the
U.S. Army Air Corps in England.
["Harrington Resigns from Congress," Sioux Center News, 1942-09-10, at 1.] Democrats quickly nominated new candidates to serve out Harrington's 9th district term and to run against Hoeven in the 8th district, but Hoeven won the 8th district seat by over 19,000 votes.
Hoeven was then re-elected to Congress from that district an additional nine times, the last time in 1960 (when he defeated future U.S. District Court Judge
Donald E. O'Brien
Donald Eugene O'Brien (September 30, 1923 – August 18, 2015) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. He wa ...
). Following the 1960 census, Iowa lost a congressional district, and the bulk of his territory was reconfigured as the
6th district. Hoeven was elected again. He chose not to run in 1964, the year in which 48 Republican seats (including Iowa's Sixth District) were lost to Democrats. Hoeven voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Acts of 1957,
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Ja ...
, and
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
, as well as the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Hoeven also served as vice president of a savings bank.
In the Republican Party, Hoeven was a delegate to each Iowa State Republican Convention from 1925 to 1970, serving as chairman of the 1940 state convention. He was a delegate to the
1964 Republican National Convention
The 1964 Republican National Convention took place in the Cow Palace, Daly City, California, from July 13 to July 16, 1964. Before 1964, there had been only one national Republican convention on the West Coast, the 1956 Republican National Conven ...
. In 1942, he also served as temporary and permanent chairman of Iowa Republican State Judicial Convention.
Retirement and death
After retiring from Congress, Hoeven resided in
Orange City, Iowa, where he died on November 9, 1980. He was interred in Nassau Township Cemetery, in
Alton, Iowa.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoeven, Charles Bernard
1895 births
1980 deaths
20th-century American politicians
United States Army personnel of World War I
American people of Dutch descent
American people of German descent
District attorneys in Iowa
Republican Party Iowa state senators
People from Alton, Iowa
People from Orange City, Iowa
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa
University of Iowa alumni
University of Iowa College of Law alumni
United States Army soldiers
20th-century American lawyers