Republican congressional 8th District candidate Pete Stauber paid a visit to Grand Marais this past week to meet with local Republicans in an attempt to drum up more support for his campaign. Above, Mr. Stauber talked with Gene Glader while Garry Gamble (wearing a cap) waited for a chance to speak with the candidate.
Pete Stauber is a tough guy. A former Detroit Red
Wings professional hockey player and retired lieutenant from the Duluth Police
Department, no one can doubt his toughness, but when it came time to talk about his pro-life stance, his voice quivered a bit.
“I am the only candidate tin the field that is pro-life,” the GOP 8th District congressional candidate said.
“Can you imagine when our third child was born?
He was born with Down syndrome. When my wife
Jodi was pregnant, the doctors could have run a test and found that he had a chromosome disorder and asked us if we wanted to abort. Some people choose to abort when they find that out. I want you to know that I am pro-life from the cradle to the grave. I want you to know our third child is the apple of everyone’s eye in our family. I want you to know our third child completes our family.”
The hard-working, amiable Hermantown resident was in Grand Marais on
Monday, April 9, meeting with the public at the
Community Center in the afternoon.
A current St. Louis
County commissioner and a former two-term
Hermantown city councilor, Stauber hopes to win enough votes so he can fill the congressional seat that will be left open when
Rick Nolan (DFL) retires at the end of this term.
At this time he is the only
Republican in the field seeking the Republican endorsement while the Democrats have half a dozen candidates trying to obtain the DFL endorsement.
“The Democrats have identified this congressional district race as their top priority,” said Stauber, urging those in attendance not only to vote but to get dtheir friends and family out to help support him and to vote for him next November.
“My youngest brother called me and said let’s make it two-for-two for the
Staubers in November with a win. Rob coached the women’s hockey team to a gold medal in this winter
Olympics, and I’m proud of him. But I told him if I win in November it won’t be for the Staubers, it will be for all of the people living in the
Northland.”
No fan of Obama Care,
Stauber called for accessible, affordable, patient-driven, physician-guided healthcare.
“The Democrats want to go to a single-payer system. We already have a single-payer system in this country. It’s called the V.A.
How’s that working? We already have 26 million veterans enrolled, and many aren’t getting the care they were promised and the care they earned. How would it look to put another 311 million people on that system?”
If elected, he said, “I will not support an unfunded mandate.” Pete added he would vote for issues he believes in and will benefit the 8th District, but, “If President Trump doesn’t support something for the 8th District, I will fight for it.”
Even though he was a victim of two gun violence crimes, Pete said he is a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and he is a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
With immigration a hot topic, Stauber said he was in favor of legal immigration, but felt that people who cross the border illegally shouldn’t be allowed to stay here. “We are a society of laws, and those laws should be followed,” he added.
As far as the campaign, Pete said he wouldn’t be outworked by anybody. “Anytime you have a question and want to call me, call me. If it’s 2 a.m. I will answer the phone. I was a police officer for a long time, and I’m used to taking phone calls day or night.”
Although he and his five brothers own the very successful Duluth Hockey Company and each has found their way to a good life, it hasn’t always been easy.
“My mother was the breadwinner in our family of six boys. I slept in a bunk bed until I was 19,” he said. Stauber, recalling his blue-collar, pull yourself up by your boot straps – or in his case, hockey skates – West Duluth roots.
On the issue of drug and alcohol abuse, “I am not even going to ask anyone to raise their hand and ask if they have been touched by alcohol or drugs because every one of us here has been affected one way or another by alcohol or drugs.”
Drugs don’t just ravish youth. Pete noted that a 72-year-old recently died from a heroin overdose. But, for people 51 and younger, the number one cause of death was “drugs and alcohol,” he said as he shook his head.
To combat the drug problem, the former police officer would like to see the illegal drug pipeline that flows from across the southern border through the Midwest to Duluth, the Iron Range, and Cook County permanently stopped.
“When we lose our kids to opioids we lose our future. When we lose our children to drugs or alcohol, we lose their time, talents and our treasure,” he said, adding that people can become addicted—or even die—after only taking some of these drugs one time.
As a police officer, Pete said the hardest thing to do is to tell parents their child had died, especially if it was from a drug overdose. “There is no good way to do that. There is no training to prepare you for that moment. You know when you go to their door with this news that this will be the saddest day of these parents’ lives.”
When it came to talking about the economy, Stauber said he liked the president’s tax plan but would go even further with tax cuts, “I will push for legislation that will allow you to keep more of the money that you have earned.”
Job growth is essential for the district, he said, “to stop the flow of our area’s largest export, our young people. They should have a chance to get jobs that pay a livable wage so they can stay here.”
Those jobs include a range of high tech, industrial, tourism, logging, health care, and mining iron-ore and mining precious metals while maintaining “our pristine environment.”
Pete said his wife Jodi is his most significant supporter and his greatest critic. Jodi is an Iraq War veteran and is retired from the 148th Fighter Wing as its first female commander.
A few weeks ago Pete was surprised to take a phone call from President Donald Trump. “I thought at first it was a joke some of my college buddies were playing on me,” he said.
But it was no joke as the president wished him well in his race.
As a young man, Pete met president Ronald Reagan. That happened after his Lake Superior State University team went to the White House where they were honored for winning the 1988 Division 1 national hockey championship. Pete was the captain of that team.
In addition to running his company and serving as a county commissioner, Pete is the current board chair of the Public Works and Transportation Committee; serves as a board member of the Northeast Regional Corrections Center (NERCC), is a current board member of the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA), is an ongoing board member of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, and serves as a board member of the Duluth International Airport, “Joint Airport Zoning Board.”
Additionally, Pete was an original member of the City of Duluth Yellow Ribbon Committee, which serves military families during times of deployment and reintegration. He is also a former board member of United Day Activities Center (UDAC), helping those in the Duluth area community who have special needs.
Pete has long been a leader. He was president of the Law Enforcement Labor Services Union, Local 363, when he retired in August 2017. He was reelected to a second term as a St. Louis County commissioner in a heavily Democratic district with 78 percent of the total votes. Now he wants to take those leadership abilities into another realm, that of a U.S. Congressman serving the 8th District.
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