Steny Hoyer

Steny Hamilton Hoyer (born June 14, 1939) is an American politician and retired attorney who has served as the U.S. representative for MD's 5th congressional district since 1981.

From 1962 to 1966, Hoyer was a member of the staff of U.S. Senator Daniel Brewster; also on Brewster's staff at that time was Nancy Pelosi.

In 1963, Hoyer received his B.A. degree magna cum laude and graduated Omicron Delta Kappa from the University of Maryland, College Park.

He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

He earned his J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1966.

In 1966, Hoyer won a newly created seat in the Maryland State Senate, representing Prince George's County–based Senate district 4C.

From 1969 to 1971, Hoyer served as the first vice president of the Young Democrats of America.

The district, created in the aftermath of Reynolds v. Sims, was renumbered as the 26th in 1975, the same year that Hoyer was elected president of the Maryland State Senate, the youngest in state history.

In 1978, Hoyer sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Maryland as the running mate of then acting Governor Blair Lee III, but lost to Samuel Bogley, 37%–34%.

Fifth district Congresswoman Gladys Spellman fell into a coma shortly before the 1980 election.

Hoyer first attained office through a special election on 19 May 1981.

As of 2023, he is in his 22nd House term.

His district includes a large swath of rural and suburban territory southeast of Washington, D.C. Hoyer is the dean of the Maryland congressional delegation and the most senior Democrat in the House.

The same year, Hoyer was appointed to the Maryland Board of Higher Education, a position he held until 1981.

She was reelected, but it soon became apparent that she would never regain consciousness, and Congress declared her seat vacant by resolution in February 1981.

Hoyer narrowly won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary, beating Spellman's husband, Reuben, by only 1,600 votes.

He defeated a better-funded Republican, Audrey Scott, in the May 19 special election.

56%–44%, earning himself the nickname "Boy Wonder".

In the 1982 general election, Hoyer was reelected to a full term with 80% of the vote.

He has faced only one relatively close contest since then, when he defeated future Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan with 53% of the vote in 1992.

His second-lowest margin of victory was his 1996 race against Republican State Delegate John Morgan, when he received 57% of the vote.

Hoyer has been reelected 14 times with no substantive opposition and is the longest-serving House member ever from Maryland.

Hoyer supports and has led the Make It In America plan linking the domestic manufacturing industry and overall U.S. economic success.

Hoyer is pro-choice on abortion rights.

From 2003 to 2023, Hoyer was the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives behind Nancy Pelosi.

During two periods of Republican House control (2003–2007 and 2011–2019), Hoyer served as House minority whip, both times under Minority Leader Pelosi.

He voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003.

(However, at the height of national polarization after the Supreme Court's intention to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked, Hoyer controversially endorsed a pro-life incumbent House member over his pro-choice primary challenger. ) Hoyer supports affirmative action and LGBT rights.

He is rated "F" by the NRA Political Victory Fund, indicating that he tends to vote in favor of gun control.

He also served as House Majority Leader from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.

He is a two-time House majority leader, having served in the post from 2007 to 2011 under Speaker Pelosi.

In 2008, Hoyer said he opposed providing immunity to telecom companies, but then negotiated a bill, which Senators Patrick Leahy and Russ Feingold called a "capitulation", that would provide immunity to any telecom company that had been told by the George W. Bush administration that its actions were legal.

"No matter how they spin it, this is still immunity", said Kevin Bankston, a senior lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group that sued over Bush's wiretapping program.

Following the 2018 midterm elections in which the Democrats took control of the House, Hoyer was reelected majority leader in 2019 for the 116th Congress; he remained the number two House Democrat behind Speaker Pelosi.

He announced on November 17, 2022, that he, along with Pelosi, would not seek a leadership position in the 118th Congress, though he would remain a member of the House.

Hoyer was born in New York City but grew up in Mitchellville, Maryland, the son of Jean (née Baldwin) and Steen Theilgaard Høyer.

His father was Danish and a native of Copenhagen; "Steny" is a variant of his father's name, "Steen".

His mother was an American with Scottish, German, and English ancestry and a descendant of John Hart, a signer of the US Declaration of Independence.

Steny Hoyer graduated from Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland.

In his early college years at the University of Maryland College Park, Hoyer held a 1.9 grade point average.