Stauber, Pete Rep 3%

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LIFE 8%

2025 3%

Pete Stauber - League of Conservation Voters

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Contributor	Total	Individuals	PACs
King Capital Corp	$19,800	$19,800	$0
Davisco Foods International	$17,600	$17,600	$0
Del Zotto Products of Texas	$16,600	$16,600	$0
Starkey Hearing Technologies	$16,500	$16,500	$0
Hubbard Broadcasting	$16,282	$16,282	$0

Top Industries, 2023 - 2024

Industry	Total	Individuals	PACs
Retired	$199,800	$199,800	$0
Oil & Gas	$163,876	$44,376	$119,500
Leadership PACs	$77,300	$0	$77,300
Republican/Conservative	$59,061	$32,561	$26,500
Transportation Unions	$57,375	$375	$57,000

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4 26

Opponents hope clock runs out on bill to lift sulfide mining ban in Boundary Waters watershed

A massive lobbying effort is targeting GOP senators to reject Rep. Pete Stauber’s resolution that would lift a Biden-era mineral withdrawal.

Brian Arola / MinnPost, Ana Radelat / MinnPost

Apr 1, 2026

WASHINGTON – Rep. Pete Stauber thought he had found a foolproof way to speed legislation through Congress that would lift a moratorium on copper and nickel mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.

But it has not turned out to be speedy. And maybe not fool proof, either.

Stauber, R-8th District, had no trouble winning approval in the U.S. House of his resolution. He has also won House approval for other legislation that would help mining interests on the Iron Range. But the filibuster, which gives minority Democrats leverage in the U.S. Senate, has always prevented his legislation from passage in that chamber.

So, Stauber turned to the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Approved in 1996, the act was aimed at making federal agencies more accountable.

The CRA can overturn federal agency rules and regulations through a joint resolution of approval in both the House and Senate and a president’s signature. That means it is not bound by the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.

Stauber’s resolution would lift a Biden-administration 20-year moratorium, or mineral withdrawal, on copper and nickel mining in about 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest that is a watershed for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness because of concerns over the environmental dangers of sulfide mining.

It would also prevent future presidents from asking the U.S. Forest Service to implement a new mining moratorium to try to protect that sportsman’s paradise

The use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn the mineral withdrawal stunned environmental and conservation groups that have for years fought attempts to mine copper and nickel in Superior National Forest. That moratorium has impacted mining firms like Twin Metals, which has been working for more than a decade to obtain federal permits to mine in the forest.

Stauber’s legislation has opened a new front in the battle, and opponents of sulfide mining are deploying a grassroots lobbying effort to try to convince the Senate to ignore the legislation, saying it would have long-term and broader consequences.

“The Senate’s upcoming vote will decide the fate of America’s most cherished canoe country and set a dangerous precedent for public lands across the country,” said Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters.

The Roosevelt factor

Those opposed to sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed are hoping the Senate will run out of time to take up Stauber’s resolution.

To use the CRA to avoid a filibuster, the Senate must act on a disapproval resolution during a 60-days-of-Senate-session period. That deadline will come near the end of April because, although the Senate received Stauber’s resolution Jan. 26, there have been times the chamber was not in session.

Yet the Senate is tied up with bigger things, including trying to pass legislation to fund the war with Iran and the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has made the SAVE America Act, which would require strict identification to register to vote and cast a ballot, a priority and will not sign any other bill until the voter bill hits his desk. And the Senate is about to take a two-week spring break.

So, opponents of Stauber’s resolution are in watch-and-see mode, celebrating each day the issue isn’t on the Senate floor.

“We’re over halfway there,” said Libby London, spokesperson for Save the Boundary Waters. “We’ve basically been in limbo for 10 weeks and every week without a vote is a good week for the Boundary Waters.”

That the vote hasn’t happened yet shows how much the Boundary Waters is beloved, London said. She pointed as evidence of the Boundary Waters’ popularity a lobbying blitz that includes outreach to Republicans from the great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons of former President Teddy Roosevelt.

“The proposed resolution is diametrically at odds with the conservation legacy of President Theodore Roosevelt,” the president’s descendants wrote in a lengthy letter to GOP senators.

Meanwhile, the resolution’s opponents are anxiously watching the calendar.

“Americans do not want to let Congress take away the Boundary Waters, but it is hard to sit here in this gray area,” London said.

Stauber also knows the clock is ticking. In an op-edthat ran in The Hill last week, Stauber urged the Senate to hurry to vote on his legislation, citing the need for war-fighting minerals in the wake of the war on Iran.

“This is not about Northern Minnesota. It is about whether the United States has the minerals necessary to build the aircraft, munitions and systems required to fight — and win — the wars of the future,” Stauber said in his op-ed.

Stauber also wrote that “national security doesn’t pause for political inertia.”

“The Senate should pass the resolution now — not because Northern Minnesota needs it, but because America’s security demands it,” he wrote.

A spokeswoman for Stauber was optimistic.

“Our bill will come to the Senate floor soon, and when it does, it will pass,” she said.

‘Legislative gymnastics’

Yet Pete Marshall, a spokesperson for Friends of the Boundary Waters, said even if the mining issue does reach the top of the Senate’s to-do list, it’s unclear how much support it has.

Reading the tea leaves, he suspects Republicans would have enough votes to undo the mining ban. The process, however, may ruffle feathers among traditionalists who don’t like the precedent that it would set.

“Just because of the way that the Congressional Review Act is being used to overturn a public land order … (we hope) some more institutional-minded Republicans would not be too thrilled by this kind of legislative gymnastics that went on,” he said.

Congress passed the CRA to prevent a lame duck president from pushing through massive policy changes right before a new president is inaugurated. It mandates a resolution of disapproval to be considered 60 days after a rules change. But the mineral withdrawal was implemented on Jan. 26, 2023.

Athan Manuel, director of the lands protection program at the Sierra Club, said Stauber and his supporters are using an improper “loophole” and because of that and other things he expects court challenges if Stauber’s resolution becomes law.

Manuel also lauded Sen. Tina Smith’s outreach to GOP colleagues.

“She’s done a good job in casting doubt on the vote count,” Manuel said.

Marshall said Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst of Iowa and even Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota may not like the use of the CRA because they are traditionalists and could be “longshot” no votes.

“I know senators on both sides of the aisle have gotten huge amounts of outreach from their constituents opposing this bill,” Smith said in an emailed statement. “Not just from people who are lucky enough to have visited the Boundary Waters, but also those who care about public lands and are deeply concerned how this unprecedented legislative maneuver opens the door to reversing protections for public lands everywhere.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who like Smith is a Democrat, also opposes the resolution.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate and it would not take too many GOP “no” votes for Stauber’s resolution to fail if Democrats hold firm in opposition. But if Trump, who removed a moratorium on sulfide mining that was placed on Superior National Forest by the Obama administration, gets involved, it would be difficult for a Republican to vote “no” on the resolution.

Even if the resolution passes the Senate, there won’t be sulfide mining in Superior National Forest for many years. Mining companies like Twin Metals must apply for federal and state permits, undergo environmental reviews and clear other bureaucratic hurdles.

“It would still be a very lengthy review process before any mine would be permitted,” said Julie Lucas, executive director of Mining Minnesota, who says development of a huge deposit of helium is also impacted by the moratorium.

So, environmental advocates don’t have tunnel vision on only Congress.

They’ll be at the Minnesota Capitol on Wednesday to push for more state protections for the Boundary Waters. Marshall said they want the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to cancel Twin Metals’ lease based on provisions in a 1990 agreement with the state.

Under the provisions, the state could take this step after 35 years if the company hasn’t actively engaged in mining and hasn’t paid the state $100,000 in royalty payments during a calendar year. Twin Metals hasn’t met either requirement, according to Friends of the Boundary Waters.

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AN 12 25

A prominent group of anti-Trump former Republicans are spending big to combat President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress, pouring support into Democratic candidates to "defeat MAGA," according to a new Politico report.

The move comes from the Save America Movement organization, a political action committee (PAC) co-founded by former moderate Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who also helped found The Lincoln Project, another anti-Trump PAC. While the Lincoln Project is specifically directed at Trump, the Save America Movement is more directly focused on opposing the broader Republican Party under his leadership.

To this end, coming off of bruising electoral losses for the GOP in recent off-year elections, the PAC has now launched an effort to "pour up to $100 million into as many as 60 GOP-controlled House seats ahead of the midterms," Politico explained. This will be the PAC's first attempt at direct electoral advocacy, "after it has spent significant capital protesting [Trump's] return to office, which it deems a fundamental threat to American freedoms."

“The Save America Movement was started with the express mission of defeating MAGA, but the electoral side, particularly the 2026 elections, are absolutely critical to that mission,” Mary Corcoran, co-founder and executive director for the PAC, said in a statement to Politico.

The parties in opposition to the sitting president are typically favored in midterm races, but the most recent off-year elections have given Democrats even more reason to expect a strong showing in 2026. Earlier last month, the likes of Mikie Sherill in New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Zohran Mamdani in New York Citysaw significant margins of victory over their GOP and independent opponents, and crucially saw major wins with key demographics that swung for Trump in 2024. While the party lost a recent Tennessee special election for a vacant House seat, the loss by only 9 points in a district Trump won by 22 also signaled a major shift in voter support away from Republicans.

The Save America Movement already has a list of 10 House seats it is hoping to pour fundraising dollars into for 2026, "spanning Alaska to Florida," according to a memo shared with Politico.

"The seats the group is already targeting range from battleground areas like WI-03 — where Democrat Rebecca Cooke is making another run at unseating GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden after losing narrowly last year — to the solid red MN-08, where GOP Rep. Pete Stauber won by 17 points in 2024," Politico explained.

When pressed about the feasibility of the fundraising goal, Corcoran shared with the outlet, "what I can tell you is that the response from donors has been very positive.”

The PAC is also looking to beat Republicans at their own game and try to reach voters early, much earlier than the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee typically does for midterm races.

“Republicans have always been really good about speaking to voters early,” Corcoran explained. “We need to fill that gap and ensure by the time the candidates are actually campaigning, the voters already have a perspective in their minds about how they’re going to vote.”

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4 26 Pete Stauber - Wikipedia

TALK

Coronavirus and failure to comply with public health guidance

Ironrange22 (talk) 04:08, 6 October 2020 (UTC)@KidAd, four times more Americans have died from the Covid-19 pandemic in six months than in the Vietnam War in over twenty years. American society has been fundamentally disrupted by the virus. The section and text reflect the weight and significance of an elected public official's actions in the context of a major American historical event. The facts depicted in this new section have been confirmed by multiple, reputable sources.

Per WP:ONUS, The onus to achieve consensus for inclusion is on those seeking to include disputed content. They means the content stays out of the article until you gain consensus for it. The material violates WP:UNDUE, WP:NPOV, and WP:CSECTION. KidAd talk 04:11, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

I disagree that the material violates WP:UNDUE, WP:NPOV, and WP:CSECTION. One gains consensus by editing and through Talk. I challenge the claims of WP:UNDUE and WP:CSECTION. As stated above, Covid-19 and the contraction of the virus by the President of the United States during a global pandemic is a major historical event. The corollary actions of an elected official related to clear and established public health guidelines by the state and federal government, as well as to clear guidelines from a global airline, are notable and significant. This section is neither undue nor does it violate the neutral point of view. The language in this section has deliberately been written for balanced and impartial language WP:BALANCE and WP:IMPARTIAL. Ironrange22 (talk) 04:52, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

After winning the national championship, the team was invited to the White House, where Stauber met President Ronald Reagan, an event he has called pivotal in kindling his interest in politics.^[6]

...

2018

In June 2018, President Donald Trump campaigned for Stauber, 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.^[16][17] Stauber had served since 2013 as a member of the St. Louis County, Minnesota Commission (which includes Duluth). He had also served on the Hermantown City Council for eight years.^[18]

The 8th district had an open seat in a district where the last two elections were close.^[17][19][20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] He has since walked back from his campaign pledge.^[22]

2020

Stauber was reelected on November 4, 2020, defeating DFL nominee Quinn Nystrom, becoming the first Republican in 76 years to be reelected in the 8th district.^[23] 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.^[24]

2022

Stauber was reelected on November 8, 2022, defeating DFL nominee Jennifer Schultz.^[25]

2024

Stauber was reelected on November 5, 2024, defeating Schultz in a rematch of the 2022 election.^[26]

Tenure

According to the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, Stauber held a Bipartisan Index Score of 0.7 in the 116th United States Congress for 2019, which placed him 64th out of 435 members.^[27] Based on FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker at ABC News, Stauber voted with Trump's stated public policy positions 90.4% of the time,^[28] which ranks him average in the 116th United States Congress when predictive scoring (district partisanship and voting record) is used.^[29]

On September 30, 2020, Stauber hosted Trump at a rally of about 3,000 people at the Duluth International Airport. Along with two of his Minnesota Republican House colleagues, Stauber rode with Trump on Air Force One.^[30] After it was determined that Stauber had interacted with people who tested positive for COVID-19 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.^[31]

In December 2020, Stauber was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump.^[32]

A group of Ojibwe tribes from Stauber's district rebuked him for his attempts to block President 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.^[33]

During the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election in January 2023, Stauber consistently voted for Kevin McCarthy.^[34] In October 2023, he voted against removing McCarthy as speaker, which was unsuccessful and resulted in another election.^[35] Stauber backed Jim Jordan on the first ballot and Bruce Westerman on the next two ballots^[36] before voting for Mike Johnson on the fourth and final ballot.^[37] In December 2023, he was among the 105 Republicans who voted to expel George Santos from the House.^[38]

In April and May 2023, Stauber introduced a resolution and bill to end mineral withdrawal in Ely, Minnesota, as a response to a moratorium the Biden administration enacted the previous year.^[39] In April 2024, the House of Representatives passed Stauber's bill, 212–203. It was unlikely to pass the Democratic–controlled Senate, and the White House publicly opposed it.^[40][41] With the Republicans having secured a federal government trifecta, Stauber announced in January 2025 that he would reintroduce the bill.^[42]

In a January 2025 interview, Stauber said the Trump administration's federal government grant pause was acceptable. He justified it by citing wasteful spending, claiming millions of dollars had been spent on condoms in the Gaza Strip.^[43]

In 2026, Stauber invited Nick Shirley, a right-wing Youtuber known for creating videos making allegations of fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota, to the 2026 State of the Union Address.

Political positions

Committee assignments

For the 119th Congress:^[44]

Caucus memberships

Law Enforcement Caucus
Congressional Steel Caucus
Congressional Motorcycle Caucus^[45]
Congressional Western Caucus
Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation
Republican Main Street Partnership^[46]
Republican Study Committee^[47]
Republican Governance Group^[48]
Problem Solvers Caucus (former)^[49][50]
Congressional Coalition on Adoption^[51]

...

Of German ancestry, Stauber lives in Hermantown, where he and his family belong to the St. Lawrence Catholic Church.^[55] His wife, Jodi, is an Iraq War veteran and the first female Command Chief of the 148th Fighter Wing.^[56] The couple have six children.^[57] Their eldest son, Levi, played as a forward for the Michigan Tech Huskies.^[58]

His brother Robb coached the United States women's national ice hockey team for eight years, first as an assistant and later as head coach. In that latter role, he coached the team to a gold medal at the 2017 IIHF Women's World Championship.^[59] The next year, he coached the team to a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics^[60]

Stauber and his brothers run the Stauber Brothers Military Heroes Hockey Camp, a summer program for children with parents in the military.^[61] The six co-own the Duluth Hockey Company, which began as a sporting goods retailer but since 2015 has specialized in hockey-related merchandise.^[62][63] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company received over $86,000 in relief funds from the Paycheck Protection Program.^[64][65]

One of his sons has Down syndrome, and Stauber has advocated for continuing medical research into the disorder. In 2023, he received the Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Award from the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.^[66]

While on police duty in 1995, Stauber was shot and lightly wounded in the head when a bullet entered his squad car.^[67][18][68]

References

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Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) was served a “reality check” by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Friday, after the pro-Trump election-denying Republican repeatedly took credit this week for a massive infrastructure project in his home state, funded by President Joe Biden’s legislation the Minnesota Congressman voted against.

“Reality check: I approved this because it’s a deserving project, consistent with President Biden’s priorities. This is happening because the Biden infrastructure package passed, despite your ‘no’ vote,” wrote Secretary Buttigieg on social media, in response to Rep. Staubert’s video providing what he claimed was a “fact check.”

At issue is President Joe Biden’s signature Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which he signed into law in November of 2021. Although bipartisan, just 13 Republicans in the House and just 19 in the Senate voted for it.

“I was recently proud to announce that both Duluth, Minnesota and superior Wisconsin received over $1 billion in federal funding to help replace the Blatnik Bridge,” Congressman Stauber, a three-term backbench Republican, proudly declared in his social media video (below). “The Blatnik Bridge has helped drive our Twin Ports economy for the past six decades, and it needs repair and replacing. Securing the money to help replace this bridge has long been a priority of mine. And I am proud to help deliver over $1 billion in federal funds to the north.”

He also berated President Joe Biden and Democratic Governor Tim Walz. President Biden was a U.S. Senator for more than 35 years, and Governor Waltz was a U.S. Congressman for a dozen years.

“Now I know it’s been a while since the President and the governor worked in Congress. So maybe they need a little refresher on the legislative process, just because the infrastructure bill passed Congress and was signed into law that did not magically guarantee federal money for the Blatnik Bridge.”

Sec. Buttigieg’s “reality check” also came after Rep. Stauber earlier in the week posted on social media, “I’m proud to announce that Duluth, MN and Superior, WI have received over 1 billion in federal funding to help replace the Blatnik Bridge. This is a HUGE win for #MN08 and I was proud to advocate for these funds!”

That post earned a “Readers’ note” correction says: “Pete Stauber voted against the bill that is funding this project.”

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party blasted Stauber: “FACT CHECK: you said the law that’s funding the Blatnik Bridge replacement was a path to socialism and voted against it. Give it up.”

Minnesota author Eric Chandler also berated Congressman Stauber: “Shorter: I will vote against infrastructure. But when money is approved by others who realize infrastructure costs money, I will put out my hand for some.”

Jake Schwitzer, the executive director of Minnesota’s North Star Policy Action added, “It’s extremely funny that this guy thinks that Biden wasn’t going to fund this bridge, but then he was presented with a letter with Stauber’s name way down the list of signatures and was like HANG ON GIVE IT A BILLION DOLLARS. Just vote for the bill if you want credit man.”

See the social media posts below or at this link.