January 3, 1947: Blatnik wins seat, holds it for next 28 years

On this day in 1947, John A. Blatnik took his seat in Washington D.C. as Minnesota’s 8th District Congressman, a seat he would hold until January, 1975. Blatnik was born in Chisholm in 1911 and attended the Winona State Teachers College (today’s Winona State University) before returning to his home town to teach chemistry. He would also attend classes at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota and worked as assistant county superintendent of schools for St. Louis County from 1939 to 1941. From 1941 to 1944 he served in the Minnesota State Senate. In 1942 he joined the United States Army Air Corps and the Office of Strategic Services until his discharge as a captain on January 1946. he then ran for Congress in 1946 on the ticket of the newly formed Minnesota Democratic-Farm-Labor Party. He stayed with the DFL and was reelected 13 times. He is best known as a supporter of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which allows vessels to reach Duluth from the Atlantic Ocean; he also authored the legislature that made the seaway a reality in 1959. He would go on to help pass 1972’s Federal Water Pollution Control Act, better known to us today as the Clean Water Act. Blatnik also pushed for the construction of a new bridge to replace the Interstate Bridge between Duluth and Superior; that bridge—known to most Twin Ports residents as the “High Bridge”—was renamed the John A. Blatnik Bridge on September 24, 1971. Mr. Blatnik died December 17, 1991.

John A. Blatnik. (Image: Library of Congress)