PERSON: Peter DeFazio

U.S. House of Representatives

Member of Congress (Retired)

Peter Anthony DeFazio (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Oregon’s 4th congressional district from 1987 to 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is a founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A native of Massachusetts and a veteran of the United States Air Force Reserve, he previously served as a county commissioner in Lane County, Oregon. On December 1, 2021, DeFazio announced he would not seek reelection in 2022.

DeFazio was born in 1947 in Needham, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, graduating from Needham High School in 1965. He credits his great-uncle with shaping his politics; that great-uncle almost never said “Republican” without adding “bastard” (or “bastud,” as it sounded in a Boston accent). He served in the United States Air Force Reserve from 1967 to 1971. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University in 1969 and a Master of Arts degree in gerontology from the University of Oregon in 1977.

From 1977 to 1982, DeFazio worked as an aide to U.S. Representative Jim Weaver. He was elected as a Lane County Commissioner in 1983 and served as chairman from 1985 to 1986.

>> Wikipedia