Steny Hamilton Hoyer ( ; born June 14, 1939) is an American politician and retired attorney who has served as the U.S. representative for since 1981. From 2003 to 2023, Hoyer was the second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives behind Nancy Pelosi. He served twice as House Majority Leader, from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.
Hoyer was first elected in a 1981 special election and began his 23rd term in 2025. His district includes a large swath of rural and suburban territory southeast of Washington, D.C. He is currently the most senior Democrat in the House and the dean of Maryland congressional delegation. Hoyer has also twice served as the House minority whip (2003–2007 and 2011–2019), with Pelosi as minority leader. In November 2022, Hoyer announced that he, along with Pelosi, would not seek a leadership position in the 118th Congress. He was re-elected in 2024, and on January 7, 2026, announced that he would not seek a 24th term in that year's election.
Early life and education Hoyer was born in New York City but grew up in Mitchellville, Maryland, the son of Jean (née Baldwin) and Steen Theilgaard Høyer. His father was Danish and a native of Copenhagen; "Steny" is a variant of his father's name, "Steen". His mother was an American with Scottish, German, and English ancestry and a descendant of John Hart, a signer of the US Declaration of Independence.
Steny Hoyer graduated from Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland. In 1963, Hoyer received his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude and graduated Omicron Delta Kappa from the University of Maryland, College Park. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He earned his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1966.
Early political career From 1962 to 1966, Hoyer was a member of the staff of U.S. senator Daniel Brewster; also on Brewster's staff at that time was Nancy Pelosi.
In 1966, Hoyer won a newly created seat in the Maryland State Senate, representing Prince George's County–based Senate district 4C. The district, created in the aftermath of Reynolds v. Sims, was renumbered as the 26th in 1975, the same year that Hoyer was elected president of the Maryland State Senate, the youngest in state history.
From 1969 to 1971, Hoyer served as the first vice president of the Young Democrats of America.
In 1978, Hoyer sought the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Maryland as the running mate of then acting Governor Blair Lee III, but lost to Samuel Bogley, 37%–34%. The same year, Hoyer was appointed to the Maryland Board of Higher Education, a position he held until 1981.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections Fifth district Congresswoman Gladys Spellman fell into a coma shortly before the 1980 election. She was reelected, but it soon became apparent that she would never regain consciousness, and Congress declared her seat vacant by resolution in February 1981. Hoyer narrowly won a crowded seven-way Democratic primary, beating Spellman's husband, Reuben, by only 1,600 votes. He defeated a better-funded Republican, Bowie Mayor Audrey Scott, in the May 19 special election. 56%–44%, earning himself the nickname "boy wonder".Shailagh Murray "Political Pragmatism Carried Hoyer to the Top" . The Washington Post, page A6. Friday, November 17, 2006. In the 1982 general election, Hoyer was reelected to a full term with 80% of the vote. He has faced only one relatively close contest since then, when he defeated future Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan with 53% of the vote in 1992. His second-lowest margin of victory was his 1996 race against Republican State Delegate John Morgan, when he received 57% of the vote. Hoyer has been reelected 14 times with no substantive opposition and is the longest-serving House member ever from Maryland.
Tenure
Domestic issues Hoyer supports and has led the Make It In America plan linking the domestic manufacturing industry and overall U.S. economic success.
Hoyer is pro-choice on abortion rights. He voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003. (However, at the height of national polarization after the Supreme Court's intention to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked, Hoyer controversially endorsed a pro-life incumbent House member over his pro-choice primary challenger.) Hoyer supports affirmative action and LGBT rights. He is rated "F" by the NRA Political Victory Fund, indicating that he tends to vote in favor of gun control.
In 2008, Hoyer said he opposed providing immunity to telecom companies, but then negotiated a bill, which Senators Patrick Leahy and Russ Feingold called a "capitulation", that would provide immunity to any telecom company that had been told by the George W. Bush administration that its actions were legal. "No matter how they spin it, this is still immunity", said Kevin Bankston, a senior lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy rights group that sued over Bush's wiretapping program. "It's not compromise, it's pure theater."
In June 2010, Hoyer brought up the idea that Congress could temporarily extend middle-class tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, suggesting that making them permanent would cost too much. President Obama wanted to extend them permanently for people making less than $200,000 a year and families making less than $250,000.
Hoyer voted against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1999. In 2019 and 2021, Hoyer voted to impeach President Donald Trump.
In February 2021, Hoyer made a speech in Congress that has been viewed online more than two million times, criticizing a Facebook post by U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. The post featured a gun-toting Greene next to three members of the "Squad"—Representatives Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib—with the caption "Democrats' Worst Nightmare". In his speech, Hoyer compared Greene's words with those of Representative Steve King, who was removed from the Judiciary and Agriculture Committees in 2019 after comments he made to The New York Times questioning why white supremacy was considered offensive. Hoyer said that, in both posts, Greene had promoted baseless conspiracy theories far more offensive and incendiary than the comment that led Republicans to strip King of his committee roles. He asked his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to "do the decent thing" and strip Greene of her committee roles. The vote succeeded, with 11 Republicans joining Democrats to pass the motion to remove.
Foreign issues Hoyer supports civilian nuclear cooperation with India.
Hoyer initially supported the Iraq War and was recognized by the DLC for his vocal leadership on this issue. After the war became publicly unpopular, he said he favored a "responsible redeployment". But he repeatedly supported legislation to continue funding the war without deadlines for troop withdrawal, most recently in return for increased funding of domestic projects.
Hoyer is a supporter of Israel, and has often been allied with American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In September 2007, he criticized Representative Jim Moran for suggesting that AIPAC "has pushed [the Iraq] war from the beginning", calling the comment "factually inaccurate". In January 2017, he voted for a House resolution condemning UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which called Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories a flagrant violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.
Hoyer supported President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. In 2023, he voted with an overwhelming bipartisan majority to provide Israel with whatever support is necessary in the "barbaric war" in Gaza started by Hamas and other terrorists following the October 7 attacks.
Hoyer has said that a nuclear Iran is "unacceptable" and that the use of force remains an option.
In January 2019, Hoyer opposed Trump's planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan as "impulsive, irresponsible, and dangerous". He supports former President Obama's call for authorizing limited but decisive military action in response to the Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons.
Hoyer is a former chair of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. During an AIPAC-led August 2025 summer trip to Israel amid the Gaza humanitarian crisis, Hoyer said in a video recorded for AIPAC, "What we found is that contrary to world opinion, Israel has been doing everything it possibly can to ensure that there’s minimal damage to civilians who are not part of Hamas's army. Unfortunately, the world is not seeing that. The world has got a view that I don't think is accurate." Hoyer was referred to as a long-term unofficial leader to AIPAC-led trips.
Maritime law Hoyer voted for the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987. The Act asserts United States title to certain abandoned shipwrecks located on or embedded in submerged lands under state jurisdiction, and transfers title to the respective state, thereby empowering states to manage these cultural and historical resources more efficiently, with the goal of preventing treasure hunters and salvagers from damaging them. President Ronald Reagan signed it into law on April 28, 1988.
Legislation On February 28, 2014, Hoyer introduced the bill to amend the National Law Enforcement Museum Act to extend the termination date (H.R. 4120; 113th Congress). The bill would extend until November 9, 2016, the authority of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization, to construct a museum on federal lands in the District of Columbia honoring law enforcement officers.
Fundraising Hoyer is a donor for House Democrats. He has donated large sums to fellow party members in the House. In the 2008 election cycle, he contributed more than $1 million to the party and individual candidates.
Committee assignments For the 119th Congress: Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (Ranking Member) Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch
Caucus memberships Black Maternal Health Caucus Congressional Ukraine Caucus
Party leadership
Hoyer served as chair of the Democratic Caucus, the fourth-ranking position among House Democrats, from 1989 to 1994; a former co-chair of the Democratic Steering Committee; and as the chief candidate recruiter for House Democrats from 1995 to 2000. He also served as Deputy Majority Whip from 1987 to 1989.
When David E. Bonior resigned as minority whip in early 2002, Hoyer ran in the race to succeed him but lost to Nancy Pelosi. After the 2002 midterm elections, Pelosi ran to succeed Dick Gephardt as minority leader, leaving the minority whip post open again. On November 14, 2002, Hoyer's colleagues in the Democratic Caucus unanimously elected him minority whip, the second-highest-ranking position among House Democrats.
Pelosi became the Speaker of the House in January 2007. Hoyer was elected by his colleagues to be House Majority Leader for the 110th Congress, defeating John Murtha of Pennsylvania by a vote of 149–86 within the caucus, despite Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha. Hoyer was the first Marylander to become Majority Leader and became the highest-ranking federal lawmaker in Maryland history. In this post, Hoyer was the House Democrats' floor leader and ranked second in the leadership, after the Speaker.