Pete Stark

Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark Jr. (November 11, 1931 – January 24, 2020) was an American businessman and politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 2013. A Democrat from California, Stark's district—California's 13th congressional district during his last two decades in Congress—was in southwestern Alameda County and included Alameda, Union City, Hayward, Newark, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Fremont (his residence during the early part of his tenure), as well as parts of Oakland and Pleasanton. At the time he left office in 2013, he was the fifth most senior Representative, as well as sixth most senior member of Congress overall. He was also the dean of California's 53-member Congressional delegation, and the only openly atheist member of Congress.

After 2010 redistricting, Stark's district was renumbered as the 15th district for the 2012 election. He narrowly finished first in the primary ahead of fellow Democrat Eric Swalwell, but lost to Swalwell in the general election. He was the second-longest serving U.S. Congressman, after Jack Brooks (D-Texas, 1994), to lose a general election.

Stark was born on November 11, 1931, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Dorothy M. (née Mueller) and Fortney Hillman Stark. He was of German and Swiss descent.

He graduated from Wauwatosa High School in 1949. Stark received a Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. He served in the United States Air Force from 1955 to 1957. After leaving the Air Force, Stark attended the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his MBA in 1960.

In 1963, Stark founded Security National Bank, based in Walnut Creek. He described it as "a bank whose sole purpose was to fulfill the financial needs of working people." It was reportedly the first in the country to offer free checking. While Stark grew up as a Republican, his opposition to the Vietnam War led him to switch parties in the mid-1960s. He printed checks with peace signs on them and placed a giant peace sign on the roof of his bank's headquarters. In 1971, Stark was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. Stark sold his interest in the bank for millions in 1972 when he was elected to the House of Representatives.

In 1972, at the age of 41, Stark ran in the Democratic primary against 14-term incumbent U.S. Representative and octogenarian George Paul Miller of Alameda in what was then the 8th district. He won the Democratic primary with 56% of the vote, a 34-point margin. In the 1972 United States House of Representatives elections, he defeated Republican Lew Warden with 53% of the vote. He did not face another contest that close until 2012, and was reelected 18 times.

Stark was unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 election and was reelected in the general election with 76.5% of the vote.

He faced his first Democratic challenger in 2010, and the challenger showed weakening support for Stark, gathering 16% of the primary votes without any endorsements.

In the 2012 United States House of Representatives elections, Stark's district was renumbered as the 15th district, and only retained roughly half of Stark's former territory. Because of California's new nonpartisan blanket primary, which allows the general election to be contested by the two highest vote-getters in the primary regardless of party affiliation, his opponent in the general election was Dublin city councilman Eric Swalwell, a fellow Democrat who was almost half a century Stark's junior. Indeed, Stark won his first race eight years before Swalwell was born. During the campaign, the Stark campaign circulated a flyer falsely associating Swalwell with the Tea Party movement, a characterization rejected by both the Swalwell campaign and Josh Richman of the San Jose Mercury News. In the general election, Swalwell defeated Stark with 52% of the vote in an upset.

At 40 years (as of the end of service on January 3, 2013), Stark had been the longest-serving member of Congress from California, serving continuously from January 3, 1973, through January 3, 2013. The Hayward Area Historical Society is the repository of Stark's papers from his tenure.

Stark died at his home in Harwood, Maryland, on January 24, 2020, at the age of 88, from leukemia. His successor in Congress, Eric Swalwell, issued a statement:Pete Stark gave decades of public service to East Bay residents as a voice in Congress for working people... His knowledge of policy, particularly regarding healthcare, and his opposition to unnecessary wars demonstrated his deep care for his constituents. Our community mourns his loss.