Peter Allen Stauber (born May 10, 1966) is an American politician, former professional hockey player, and retired law enforcement officer from

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

serving as the

United States representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

for

Minnesota's 8th congressional district Minnesota's 8th congressional district covers the northeastern part of Minnesota. It is anchored by Duluth, the state's fourth-largest city. It also includes most of the Mesabi & Vermilion iron ranges, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in th ...

. A member of the Republican Party, Stauber has represented the district since 2019. Stauber was born and grew up in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

. He played college hockey for

Lake Superior State University Lake Superior State University (colloquially Lake State, Lake Superior State, Soo Tech, and LSSU) is a public college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is enrolls approximately 2,000 students. Due to its proximity to the Canadian border, and th ...

, where as a star player on the team, he led the Lakers to a national championship in the

1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament The 1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was the culmination of the 1987–88 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, the 41st such tournament in NCAA history. It was held between March 18 and April 2, 1988, and concluded with Lake S ...

. Stauber met his political idol President Ronald Reagan when the team visited the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

after winning the national championship. He later said this event formed his political ambition. He went on to have a brief career in professional hockey. Stauber served as a lieutenant in the Duluth Police Department from 1995 to 2017. During his service as a police officer, he was shot while on duty. He also served as a county commissioner in St. Louis County, Minnesota, from 2013 to 2019. Stauber succeeded DFL incumbent

Rick Nolan Richard Michael Nolan (born December 17, 1943) is an American politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 8th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He previously served as the U.S. representative from ...

by defeating Democratic nominee Joe Radinovich in the

2018 United States House of Representatives elections The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 6, 2018, as part of the 2018 midterm elections during President Donald Trump's term, with early voting taking place in some states in the weeks preceding that date. ...

. Representing a working-class and mostly rural district, Stauber is only the second Republican to represent his district since 1947.

Early life and education

Stauber was born on May 10, 1966, in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, and attended Denfeld High School in Duluth. He has a bachelor's degree in criminology from

, where he was a star player on the

Lake Superior State Lakers men's ice hockey The Lake Superior State Lakers men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents Lake Superior State University. The Lakers are a member of the Central Collegiate Hoc ...

team. He is credited with helping lead the Lakers to victory in the playoffs and the 1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship game. Lake Superior "became the smallest school ever to win college hockey's biggest prize." In that game, Stauber took a critical shot, described by opinion columnist Mike Mullen during Stauber's 2018 candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives as "risky, arguably crafty, and inarguably illegal," and by '' Star Tribune'' sportswriter John Gilbert in his 1988 story on the championship game as the moment when "Pete Stauber got away undetected when he straight-armed the net off its moorings during a Saints rush with 1:23 to go in regulation." Reagan Contact Sheet C46825 (cropped)

After winning the national championship, the team was invited to the

, where Stauber met President Ronald Reagan, an event he has called a pivotal moment in the formation of his interest in politics.

Career

Professional hockey

In 1990, Stauber signed a multi-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings. The Florida Panthers selected him from the Red Wings in the

1993 NHL Expansion Draft The 1993 NHL Expansion Draft was an expansion draft held by the National Hockey League (NHL) to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1993–94 season, the Florida Panthers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The draft took pl ...

. Stauber and his brothers, John, Jamie, Bill, Dan, and

Robb Robb is a surname of Scottish origin, formed from a diminution (reduction) of the name Robert. Robert was a popular name, especially after its use by three Scots Kings in the fourteenth century. Rob is first recorded as a surname in the mid-15th ...

, all played hockey. Together they run an annual Stauber Brothers Military Heroes Hockey Camp, a summer program for children with parents in the military. The six are co-owners of the Duluth Hockey Company, which began as a sporting goods retailer but since 2015 has specialized in hockey-related merchandise.

Local politics

Stauber served on the Hermantown City Council for eight years. From 2013 to 2019, he served as a member of the St. Louis County, Minnesota Commission, which includes

Duluth , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

Political positions

Indigenous issues

A group of

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

tribes from Stauber's district rebuked him for his attempts to block President Joe Biden's nomination of

Deb Haaland Debra Anne Haaland (; born December 2, 1960) is an American politician serving as the 54th United States secretary of the interior. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party from 2015 to 2017 and a ...

United States Secretary of the Interior The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natur ...

. The Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes also complained about his actions. A member of the House subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples, Stauber cited Haaland's support of the

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

and opposition to oil drilling. As a member of the House, he did not vote on the nomination.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2018

In June 2018,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

campaigned for Stauber in his run for U.S. Representative, making his first visit to Minnesota as president and attending his first rally to support a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives in the 2018 general election, visiting Stauber's hometown of Duluth. The 8th district had an open seat in a previously Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL)-held district where the last two elections were close. Partisan funders on both sides of the aisle reserved "millions" of dollars for advertising in a race widely regarded as a potential Republican pickup of a seat that had been held since 2013 by

. In November, Stauber defeated the DFL nominee, former Nolan aide Joe Radinovich, to become only the fifth person to represent the district in 71 years, and the second Republican to do so. He won primarily by running up his margins in the district's more conservative western portion. During his 2018 campaign, Stauber ran on a policy of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, becoming only one of a handful of Republicans to endorse what was primarily a progressive idea. Stauber has since walked back from his campaign pledge.

2020

Stauber was reelected on November 4, 2020, defeating DFL nominee Quinn Nystrom. In December 2020, he filed a motion to support '' Texas v. Pennsylvania'', described as a "seditious abuse of the judicial process" and aimed at invalidating millions of votes in various swing states. The ''Duluth News Tribune'', which had endorsed Stauber, and many other local officials sharply criticized him for the ploy in an open letter to Stauber.

Tenure

According to the

McCourt School of Public Policy The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, an ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, Stauber held a Bipartisan Index Score of 0.7 in the

116th United States Congress The 116th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019, and ended on Janu ...

for 2019, which placed him 64th out of 435 members. Based on

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', sometimes rendered as ''538'', is an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in th ...

's congressional vote tracker at

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, Stauber voted with Trump's stated

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

positions 90.4% of the time, which ranked him average in the 116th United States Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used. On September 30, 2020, Stauber hosted Trump in a visit to his district, attending a rally of about 3,000 people at the

Duluth International Airport : ''For the United States Air Force use of this facility, see Duluth Air National Guard Base.'' Duluth International Airport is a city-owned public-use joint civil-military airport located five nautical miles (9 km) northwest of the centra ...

. Along with two of his Minnesota Republican House colleagues, Stauber rode with Trump on Air Force One. After it was determined that Stauber had interacted with people who tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

in Washington D.C., including Trump, Stauber took a Delta flight in violation of Delta's rules, potentially exposing the other passengers to the virus. In December 2020, Stauber was one of 126 Republican members of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

to sign an

amicus brief An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

in support of '' Texas v. Pennsylvania'', a lawsuit filed at the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated incumbent

Committee assignments

* House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure ** Subcommittee on Highways and Transit ** Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials ** Subcommittee on Aviation * Committee on Small Business ** Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce (Ranking Member) ** Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access

Caucus memberships

*Law Enforcement Caucus *

Congressional Steel Caucus The Congressional Steel Caucus is a bipartisan caucus of the United States Congress whose members represent regions with steel manufacturers or care about the health of the American steel industry. Caucus members will routinely meet with the curre ...

Congressional Western Caucus The Congressional Western Caucus is a caucus within the United States House of Representatives composed of 62 members. Although it has historically been bipartisan, it is currently composed almost exclusively of Republicans (with the sole excepti ...

* Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation *

Republican Main Street Partnership The Republican Main Street Partnership is a 501(c)(4) organization that was allied with the congressional Republican Main Street Caucus. The Partnership continues to exist, while the Caucus was dissolved by its members in February 2019. Hist ...

Republican Study Committee The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is a study group of conservative members of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives. As of 2021, the Chairman of the RSC is Representative Jim Banks of Indiana. Although the prima ...

* Republican Governance Group * Problem Solvers Caucus (former)

Electoral history

Personal life

Of German ancestry, Stauber lives in Hermantown, where he and his family belong to the St. Lawrence Catholic Church. While on police duty in 1995, he was shot and lightly wounded in the head when a bullet entered his squad car.

References

External links

Congressman Pete Stauber
official U.S. House website
Campaign website
* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Stauber, Pete 1966 births Adirondack Red Wings players American men's ice hockey forwards American Roman Catholics American shooting survivors Catholics from Minnesota Candidates in the 2018 United States elections County commissioners in Minnesota Lake Superior State University alumni Living people Minnesota city council members Politicians from Duluth, Minnesota Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota Toledo Storm players American police officers 21st-century American politicians NCAA men's ice hockey national champions