Biography

Dennis Hastert rose to be Speaker of the House from humble beginnings. Born in Aurora, he grew up in Oswego and earned degrees from Wheaton College and Northern Illinois University. After 16 years of teaching and coaching wrestling at Yorkville High School, he served six years in the Illinois State House before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986. In 1999, Hastert's colleagues elected him Speaker of the House, the third highest government official in the United States.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who turned 64 on January 2nd, is now serving his fourth term as Speaker, and his ninth term as a Republican member of Congress representing Illinois' 14th Congressional District. Hastert's home district is comprised of a suburban landscape with high tech firms, small and large industrial complexes and expansive farm land west of Chicago, including the boyhood home of President Ronald Reagan in Dixon and his birthplace in Tampico. The 14th Congressional District elected Hastert in 2002 with 74% of the overall vote.

Throughout his legislative career, Speaker Hastert has drawn from his experience as a former wrestling coach by emphasizing teambuilding and setting clear-cut, achievable goals.

Hastert’s accomplishments in the 108th Congress include passing a prescription drug benefit for seniors under Medicare. It was the first time in the history of Medicare that a prescription drug program was established to help lower the cost of medicine for seniors. Hastert also helped craft the Jobs and Growth Act, which provided tax relief for working Americans and small businesses. Economists from Wall Street to Main Street credit this legislation for helping our economy surge to the strongest growth it has seen in two decades.

Prior to his election as Speaker in 1999, Hastert served as Chief Deputy Majority Whip, a leadership position he held for five years.

During that time he also served as Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice. As a member of the House Commerce Committee, Hastert had broad oversight over energy policy, interstate and foreign commerce, broadcast and telecommunications policy, food, health and drug issues.

In the 105th Congress, Hastert again was tapped by the House Leadership to chair the House Working Group on Health Care Quality, which ultimately authored the Patient Protection Act.

Hastert spent the first 16 years of his career as a government and history teacher at Yorkville High School, and it also was there that he met his wife, Jean, a fellow teacher. In addition to teaching, he coached football and wrestling. In 1976, Hastert was named Illinois Coach of the Year after leading Yorkville High School Foxes to the Illinois State Wrestling Championship. Hastert, a former high school and college wrestler himself, was inducted as an Outstanding American into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2000. In 2001, the United States Olympic Committee named him Honorary Vice President of the American Olympic movement.

Hastert is a 1964 graduate of Wheaton (IL) College where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics. He attended graduate school at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, and earned a master's degree in the philosophy of education in 1967. He lives in Yorkville, Illinois, along the Fox River with his wife Jean. They have two grown sons, Ethan and Joshua. Whenever he can find free time, Hastert enjoys attending wrestling meets, fishing, restoring vintage automobiles, and carving and painting duck decoys.

As Speaker of the House, Hastert has made history as Speaker. He is the first Republican Speaker in more than a century and one of only two Republicans to preside over consecutive electoral seat gains in the U.S House of Representatives. He is also one of two Republicans to be reelected Speaker for four consecutive terms.

Hastert recently published his autobiography, Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics.