Peter Thomas King (born April 5, 1944) is an American former politician and novelist who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he represented a South Shore Long Island district that includes parts of Nassau County and Suffolk County and was numbered as the 3rd and later the 2nd district.

King was formerly chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He stepped down because of Republican conference term limits, but remained a member of the committee. On November 11, 2019, King announced he would not seek re-election in the 2020 elections and would retire after his current term expired. He resigned from the Financial Services Committee on January 15, 2020. King also previously served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

King's professional papers are held at the University of Notre Dame Archives.

Early life, family, education and military career King was born in the New York City borough of Manhattan and raised in the Sunnyside neighborhood in nearby Queens. He is the son of Ethel M. King (née Gittins) and Peter E. King, a New York City police officer. His paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants from the island of Inishbofin in County Galway. His maternal grandfather was Welsh, and his maternal grandmother was also Irish, from County Limerick.

King graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School. He graduated from St. Francis College in 1965 with a B.A. in political science, and earned his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School in 1968. That same year, he began service in the 165th Infantry Regiment of the New York Army National Guard. He worked for the Nassau County district attorney's office until 1974, when he was honorably discharged from the 165th infantry regiment.

King and his wife, Rosemary, reside in Seaford, New York, and have two adult children. His daughter, Erin King Sweeney, served on the town council for Hempstead, New York.

King is Roman Catholic.

Political career King first sought public office in 1977, running for an at-large seat on the Hempstead, New York town council and winning with the backing of the then-powerful Nassau County Republican Party machine led by Joseph Margiotta. In 1981, he successfully ran for Nassau county comptroller, again with Margiotta's support. The next year, when several prominent Republican politicians, led by then senator Alfonse D'Amato, sought to displace Margiotta, King joined them in this internal Republican dispute; at one point, he was the only Nassau politician to do so. King was re-elected in 1985 and 1989. As comptroller, he displayed independence, often criticizing the budget proposals of county executives Francis Purcell and Thomas Gulotta, both Republicans.

King ran for attorney general of New York in 1986, and won the Republican primary after Ulster County District Attorney E. Michael Kavanagh dropped out to run for lieutenant governor. However, he was defeated by a large margin by incumbent Democratic attorney general Robert Abrams.

King was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1992. When Democratic Party Rep. Robert Mrazek announced his short-lived 1992 US Senate candidacy against Republican incumbent Al D'Amato, King ran for the 3rd district congressional seat that had been held by Mrazek. Despite being outspent 5-to-1, King won 49.6% to 46.5%. From 1993 to 2008, he sometimes faced only token opposition, while in other races, he ran against candidates who could self-finance their campaigns. Although King was outspent in those races, he won by double-digit margins.

In 2006, Nassau county legislator Dave Mejias challenged King. While some pundits believed this race would be close due to dissatisfaction with George W. Bush, King defeated Mejias 56% to 44%. King again sought re-election to Congress in 2008. The Democrats fielded 25-year-old newcomer Graham Long in a long-shot bid to defeat King. King won the 2008 election with 64% of the vote.

In 2013, St. John's University honored King with a Doctor of Laws degree, and he gave their commencement address. He was recognized for assisting New York City following Hurricane Sandy.

Potential bids for US Senate and presidency

King had contemplated running for Senate in 2000 against Hillary Clinton, and even created an exploratory committee in 2003 to challenge Chuck Schumer.L.I.'S King Weighs Run versus Schumer, nydailynews.com; accessed December 9, 2016. On both occasions he ultimately decided not to pursue the challenge.

After briefly contemplating running for governor of New York in 2010, King announced that he was seriously considering running for US Senate in a special election for the last two years of the term won in 2006 by Hillary Clinton, who had been appointed US secretary of state. When Kirsten Gillibrand, the representative of New York's 20th congressional district, was appointed to fill the seat by David Paterson, King initially said he would consider holding off on making a run for the seat. However, two days after the Gillibrand pick, King demanded Paterson justify his selection of the congresswoman, saying there were more qualified candidates. In August 2009, King ruled out a Senate run; however, in January 2010, he said he was reconsidering a run. King ultimately decided to run for re-election, which he won with 72% of the vote.

During a 2013 radio interview in New Hampshire, King said that he was in the state "because right now I'm running for president," for the 2016 election.Friedman, Dan (September 6, 2013) "Rep. Pete King of Long Island: I am running for President", nydailynews.com; retrieved September 8, 2013. However, during a March 2014 CNN interview, King said he was considering running, not actively running. In a July 2015 interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, King announced he would not be running for president. King had earlier characterized a potential candidacy as being opposed to potential Tea Party movement candidates such as Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, whom he criticized for their national defense policies. He later opposed Republican efforts to tie the repeal of delay of the Affordable Care Act to a continuing resolution before and during the 2013 government shutdown.

Political positions and statements

King was ranked as the most bipartisan member of the US House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the US Congress by the frequency by which each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party. He was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. In 2010, when Charles Rangel of New York was censured for ethical violations, King, along with Alaska Representative Don Young, were the only two Republicans voting against.

Although he supported John McCain for president in 2000, and despite his earlier disagreements with George W. Bush, King later became a Bush supporter. He opposed McCain's calls for an end to coercive interrogation methods used with suspected terrorists, as well as the senator's 2007 effort to enact a path to citizenship for current undocumented immigrants.

On April 19, 2016, King stated that he would "take cyanide" should Ted Cruz ever win the Republican nomination for president, stating:

The animosity stemmed from the Texas senator not supporting a 9/11-related healthcare bill for police and firefighters, and a statement from Cruz that New York values are socially liberal.

King, like all 195 Republican members of the House present, voted against both articles of impeachment against Donald Trump during Trump's first impeachment in 2019.

Economy King voted for the 2008 Wall Street bailout, saying it was "necessary for the financial health of New York and his district." He opposed the 2009 economic stimulus package.

King was one of five New York Republicans in the House to vote against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He voted against it due to the $10,000 cap the bill would impose on the deductibility of state, local, and property taxes and the impact that would have in New York, a high-tax state. Upon the possibility of a second round of cuts, King reiterated he would be "forced to oppose" more tax cuts if legislation included a provision "permanently extending the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction". Only twelve Republican members of Congress in total voted against the bill.Abramson, Alana, “These Are the 12 House Republicans Who Voted Against the Tax Bill”, Time. www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/5072519/house-republicans-voted-against-tax-bill/%3famp=true Published December 19, 2017, Retrieved January 2, 2020.

Labor issues King was considered a pro-union Republican. At times, King was highly critical of his party's leadership for being, in his view, "anti-union." During his time in Congress, King's voting record was significantly more pro-labor than most members of his party. In 2019, the AFL-CIO gave King a score of 55%; compared to a House Republican average of 31% for that same year. King holds a lifetime score of 54%. 2019 marked the first time since 2010 (when King scored the GOP average of 7%) that King's score was not at least double the Republican average.aflcio.org/scorecard/legislators/peter-king?order=date&sort=asc

Guns King is pro-gun control. He cites his support of gun control based on his experiences in New York, "Virtually every time there's a murder in New York, the gun tracked comes from another state," he states, expressing that without stricter gun control, people in New York will get killed.

King authored legislation to close what is known as the "terror gap," which would ban individuals on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns. He also supports the banning of bump stocks, in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. He describes the banning of bump stocks as being "morally, legally, and common sense-wise the right thing to do."

King supports expanding background checks for commercial gun sales (including at gun shows), and co-sponsored a bipartisan bill on this issue with Mike Thompson in 2013.

The NRA Political Victory Fund gave King a rating of D in 2014,Peter King on Gun Control, https://www.ontheissues.org/NY/Peter_King_Gun_Control.htm. falling to an "F" in 2016.

Health care On May 4, 2017, King voted in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with the American Health Care Act.

House Intelligence Committee King was a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2018, he voted to release the Nunes memo, written by committee staff at the request of Republican committee chairman US Representative Devin Nunes, over the objections of senior FBI leaders and all Democratic members of the committee. The memo states that the FBI "may have relied on politically motivated or questionable sources" to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on Trump adviser Carter Page in October 2016, and in three subsequent renewals, during the early phases of the FBI's investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

At the time Trump asserted that the memo discredited the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The FBI was asserted that "material omissions of fact ... fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."

Irish republicanism and the IRA