Pete Stauber

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

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company Stauber and his brothers co-own received over $86,000 in bailout funds from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Peter Allen Stauber (born May 10, 1966) is an American politician, former professional hockey player, and retired law enforcement officer from Minnesota serving as the United States representative for Minnesota's 8th congressional district.

Stauber was born on May 10, 1966, in Duluth, Minnesota, and attended Denfeld High School in Duluth.

He has a bachelor's degree in criminology from Lake Superior State University, where he was a star player on the Lake Superior State Lakers men's ice hockey team.

He played college hockey for Lake Superior State University, 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.

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

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 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.

Stauber and his brothers, John, Jamie, Bill, Dan, and Robb, all played hockey.

Together they run an annual Stauber Brothers Military Heroes Hockey Camp, a summer program for children with parents in the military.

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.

From 2013 to 2019, he served as a member of the St. Louis County, Minnesota Commission, which includes Duluth.

A group of Ojibwe tribes from Stauber's district rebuked him for his attempts to block President Joe Biden's nomination of Deb Haaland as United States Secretary of the Interior.

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 and opposition to oil drilling.

As a member of the House, he did not vote on the nomination.

Stauber voted against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the primary source of funding for the Blatnik Bridge replacement project in Duluth.

He claimed the bill would inevitably lead to socialism, but takes credit for supporting the project's funding on his website.

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 Rick Nolan.

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.

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.

Stauber served on the Hermantown City Council for eight years.

Stauber succeeded DFL incumbent Rick Nolan by defeating Democratic nominee Joe Radinovich in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections.

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."

After winning the national championship, the team was invited to the White House, where Stauber met President Ronald Reagan, an event he has called a pivotal moment in the formation of his interest in politics.

In June 2018, Donald Trump 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.

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.

A member of the Republican Party, Stauber has represented the district since 2019.

Stauber was born and grew up in Duluth, Minnesota.

Stauber was reelected on November 4, 2020, defeating DFL nominee Quinn Nystrom.