Pete Stauber Bio
Peter Allen Stauber (born May 10, 1966) is an American politician, former minor-league hockey player, and retired law enforcement officer serving as the United States representative for Minnesota’s 8th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, Stauber has represented the district since 2019 and is only the second Republican to hold the seat since 1947. Before entering politics, he built a career in college and minor-league hockey and served more than two decades with the Duluth Police Department.
Stauber grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and became a star college hockey player before briefly playing professionally. After retiring from law enforcement, he served on the Hermantown City Council and the St. Louis County Commission. He first won his congressional seat in 2018 and has been reelected in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
Early Life and Background
Peter Allen Stauber was born on May 10, 1966, in Duluth, Minnesota. He is of German ancestry and grew up in the same working-class community he would later represent in Congress. His brother, Robb Stauber, went on to play in the National Hockey League and later coach the United States women’s national ice hockey team.
Stauber attended Denfeld High School in Duluth, where he developed as a hockey player. He later enrolled at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminology. His upbringing in the Iron Range region of northern Minnesota shaped his conservative political outlook and his focus on issues such as mining, manufacturing, and rural development.
Path to US Politics
At Lake Superior State University, Stauber became a star forward for the Lakers hockey team. He helped lead the program to the 1988 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, an upset that made Lake Superior the smallest school ever to win college hockey’s biggest prize. After the championship, the team visited the White House, where Stauber met President Ronald Reagan, an experience he has called pivotal in kindling his interest in public service.
Following college, Stauber signed a multi-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings in 1990. He played three seasons with the Adirondack Red Wings in the American Hockey League and also saw action with the Toledo Storm of the ECHL. The Florida Panthers selected him in the 1993 NHL expansion draft, but a longstanding neck injury forced his retirement from professional hockey. He then joined the Duluth Police Department in 1995, beginning a 23-year career in law enforcement. While on patrol in 1995, he was shot and lightly wounded in the head when a bullet entered his squad car.
Pete Stauber Career
Early Career (1995-2018)
Stauber served as a lieutenant in the Duluth Police Department from 1995 to 2017, focusing on community policing and public safety. During this period he also entered local politics, serving eight years on the Hermantown City Council before winning a seat on the St. Louis County Commission in 2013. As a county commissioner, he represented a largely rural region that includes Duluth.
His record as a police officer and county commissioner helped him build a profile across northern Minnesota. He was known for supporting law enforcement funding, local job creation, and outdoor recreation. In 2018, encouraged by Republican leaders, he launched a campaign for the open 8th congressional district seat.
2018 Election Breakthrough
Stauber won the 2018 United States House of Representatives election by defeating Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee Joe Radinovich, a former aide to outgoing representative Rick Nolan. He became only the fifth person to represent the district in 71 years and the second Republican to do so since 1947. President Donald Trump campaigned with Stauber in Duluth during the race, his first Minnesota visit as president to support a House Republican candidate.
Stauber carried the more conservative western portion of the district and won with a focus on healthcare, mining, and trade policies. During the campaign he called for allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, becoming one of a handful of Republicans to support what had been a primarily progressive idea. He has since distanced himself from that position.
Reelection Era (2020-Present)
Stauber was reelected on November 4, 2020, defeating DFL nominee Quinn Nystrom and becoming the first Republican in 76 years to win consecutive terms in the 8th district. He won a third term on November 8, 2022, defeating DFL nominee Jennifer Schultz, and secured a fourth term on November 5, 2024, again defeating Schultz in a rematch.
In the 116th Congress, the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University gave Stauber a Bipartisan Index Score of 0.7, ranking him 64th out of 435 members. FiveThirtyEight found that he voted with President Trump’s stated policy positions 90.4 percent of the time, placing him near the average for predictive scoring in his chamber. In January 2025, with Republicans in control of both Congress and the White House, Stauber announced he would reintroduce a bill to end a federal mineral withdrawal in the Superior National Forest near Ely, Minnesota, after the House had passed his earlier version in April 2024 by a 212-203 vote.
Notable Events and Milestones
Stauber hosted President Trump at a Duluth International Airport rally of about 3,000 people on September 30, 2020, riding aboard Air Force One with two of his Minnesota Republican colleagues. In December 2020, he signed an amicus brief supporting Texas v. Pennsylvania, a Supreme Court case aimed at overturning the 2020 presidential election results. During the January 2023 Speaker election, he voted consistently for Kevin McCarthy and later backed Jim Jordan, Bruce Westerman, and ultimately Mike Johnson for the gavel. In December 2023, he was among 105 Republicans who voted to expel Representative George Santos from the House.
Pete Stauber Career Wins
Pete Stauber has won four consecutive elections to the United States House of Representatives, becoming only the second Republican to hold Minnesota’s 8th congressional district since 1947. His victories came in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, reflecting durable support across the district’s rural and working-class voters.
US House of Representatives Highlights
Stauber’s first congressional win came in November 2018 over Joe Radinovich, opening a new Republican chapter in a long-Democratic district. His 2020 victory over Quinn Nystrom made history as the first time a Republican won back-to-back terms in the seat in 76 years. Most recently, he defeated Jennifer Schultz in both 2022 and 2024, establishing himself as the longest-serving Republican representative of the 8th district in modern history.
Other Wins and Achievements
Before Congress, Stauber won a St. Louis County Commission seat in 2013 and served two terms while continuing his law enforcement career. In 2023, he received the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award from the Global Down Syndrome Foundation for his work supporting medical research for individuals with Down syndrome, a cause tied to his own family experience.
Pete Stauber Family
Family Background and Heritage
Pete Stauber is of German ancestry and grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, where hockey has long been a family tradition. His brother Robb played in the National Hockey League and later served as head coach of the United States women’s national ice hockey team, leading the squad to gold medals at the 2017 IIHF Women’s World Championship and the 2018 Winter Olympics. Pete and his brothers also operate the Stauber Brothers Military Heroes Hockey Camp, a summer program for children whose parents serve in the military.
Personal Life
Stauber lives in Hermantown, Minnesota, with his wife, Jodi Stauber, an Iraq War veteran who became the first female Command Chief of the 148th Fighter Wing. The couple have six children, and the family belongs to St. Lawrence Catholic Church. Their eldest son, Levi, played forward for the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team, and one of their sons has Down syndrome, a connection that has shaped Stauber’s advocacy for continued medical research into the disorder.