John Blatnik

Who was John Blatnik?

John Anton Blatnik was a United States Congressman from Minnesota. He was a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Blatnik was born in Chisholm, Minnesota, to parents of Slovene descent. He graduated from Winona State Teachers College and worked as a chemistry teacher in Chisholm.

From 1940 to 1944, he served in the Minnesota State Senate and volunteered to serve in the United States Army Air Corps in 1942. While in the Army Air Corps, he was chief of the Office of Strategic Services's mission with Tito's Yugoslav partisans for almost a year.

In 1946, Blatnik was elected to Congress representing Minnesota's 8th District in the northeastern part of the state, running on the newly unified ticket of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He was reelected 13 times without much difficulty. He served in the 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, 92nd, and 93rd congresses,.

John Blatnik was one of the congressmen that voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.