When John Kline retires at the end of the 114th Congress, he will exit the chamber tied for the 24th longest tenure out of the 134 U.S. House of Representatives to serve from Minnesota since statehood. Kline will join Republicans Mark Dunnell (1871-1883; 1889-1891), James McCleary (1893-1907), Sydney Anderson (1911-1925), and William Pittenger (1929-1933; 1935-1937; 1939-1947) and DFLer Fred Marshall (1949-1963) at 14 full years of service. The late DFLer Jim Oberstar (1975-2011) owns the Gopher State record at 36 years in the chamber followed by GOPer Harold Knutson (1917-1949) at 31 years and 10 months, Republican August Andresen (1925-1933; 1935-1958) at 31 years, DFLer Martin Sabo (1979-2007) at 28 years, and DFLer John Blatnik (1947-1974) at a few days shy of 28 years. Kline’s fellow delegation member, DFLer Collin Peterson (1991-present), is in his 13th term and currently ranks #6 in all-time service in the state at 24 years and eight-plus months. Peterson is running for reelection in 2016.

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