Stauber was born on May 10, 1966 in Duluth, Minnesota, and played high school hockey for Denfeld High School in Duluth. He earned his 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 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." 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.
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. After playing in the minor leagues, he retired after the 1992-93 season. 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. 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.
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 -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 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. 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.
*Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials
*Subcommittee on Aviation
Committee on Small Business
*Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce
*Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access
Caucus memberships
Problem Solvers Caucus
Law Enforcement Caucus
Congressional Steel Caucus
Congressional Western Caucus
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation
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.
