Peter Torkildsen
| Peter G. Torkildsen | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 6th district |
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In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Nicholas Mavroules |
| Succeeded by | John F. Tierney |
| Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 13th Essex District | |
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In office 1985–1991 |
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| Preceded by | John E. Murphy, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Sally Kerans |
| Chairperson of the Massachusetts Republican Party | |
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In office 2007–2009 |
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| Preceded by | Darrell Crate |
| Succeeded by | Jennifer Nassour |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Peter Gerard Torkildsen January 28, 1958 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Gail Torkildsen |
| Alma mater |
University of Massachusetts Amherst Harvard University |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Peter Gerard Torkildsen (born January 28, 1958) is a former chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee and a former member of the United States House of Representatives. Torkildsen and colleague Peter I. Blute remain the last Republicans elected to serve in the United States House delegation from Massachusetts.
Torkildsen was born into a Roman Catholic family with ten children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 28, 1958. He attended high school at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, MA and then college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and then went on to the prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before entering politics, he was a service coordinator for the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston.
Torkildsen served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1985 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992, Torklidsen was the state's Commissioner of Labor and Industries. He then went on to represent Massachusetts's 6th congressional district as a Republican for two terms, from 1993 until 1997. He had a conservative record on fiscal and social issues during his terms in the Massachusetts House and challenged then State Senator Paul Cellucci for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts in 1990 as a pro-life candidate. In Congress, he was conservative on defense spending and fiscal restraint, but was pro-choice, in particular voting against the 1996 Partial Birth Abortion Ban. During his campaign for Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party in 2007, he claimed that he had a problem with the wording of the bill as it excluded an exception for saving the mother's life, and had he been re-elected would have supported a similar bill with the exception. He also supported the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
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