Charles B. Hoeven

Who was Charles B. Hoeven?

Charles Bernard Hoeven held elective office for forty consecutive years. He was elected or re-elected eleven times to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent districts in northern Iowa. He served in Congress for 22 years, in the Seventy-eighth Congress and in ten succeeding Congresses.

Born in Hospers, Iowa, Hoeven attended the public schools and Alton High School.

During the First World War, Hoeven served in England and France as a sergeant in Company D, 350th Infantry, 88th Division, and with the Intelligence Service of the First Battalion.

He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa at Iowa City, in 1920 and a law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1922. He was admitted to the bar in 1922 and began to practice law in Alton, Iowa. He was elected as County Attorney of Sioux County, Iowa in 1924, and served in that position from 1925 to 1937. Then, he was elected to the Iowa Senate, where he served from 1937 to 1941, the last two years as president pro tempore.

In 1940, Hoeven ran for the Republican nomination in Iowa's 9th congressional district. In the primary Hoeven finished a close second to Albert Swanson, and who in turn lost to Harrington in the general election by fewer than 2,500 votes out of over 130,000 cast. Newspapers and others speculated that, if Hoeven had won the primary, he would have defeated Harrington. Thus, when reapportionment shifted most of the old 9th district into Iowa's 8th congressional district, Hoeven became an early front-runner for the 1942 Republican primary to run against Harrington. He won the primary, and a received a significant boost when Harrington resigned his House seat and the Democratic nomination two months before the 1942 general election to serve full-time in the U.S. Army Air Corps in England. Democrats quickly nominated new candidates to serve out Harrington's 9th district term and to run against Hoeven in the 8th district, but Hoeven won the 8th district seat by over 19,000 votes.