Senator Peter Hoyt Dominick - Contact Information

Peter Hoyt Dominick (July 7, 1915 – March 18, 1981) was an American diplomat, politician, and lawyer from Colorado. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the United States Congress from 1961 to 1975, including a term in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms in the United States Senate from 1963 to 1975. His uncle, Howard Alexander Smith, was a U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1944 to 1959, providing a notable family connection to national politics.

Dominick was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on July 7, 1915. He was educated at St. Mark’s School, from which he graduated in 1933, and then attended Yale University, graduating in 1937. While at Yale he was a member of the Scroll and Key society. He continued his studies at Yale Law School, earning his law degree in 1940. That same year he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in New York City with the firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn, where he worked from 1940 until 1942.

With the United States’ entry into World War II, Dominick joined the United States Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet on December 9, 1941. Already a competent pilot, he served as a military aviator and flew missions over “The Hump,” the hazardous air route over the Himalayas used to supply Allied forces in China. He remained in the Army Air Corps until his separation from service in 1945, attaining the rank of captain. During his wartime service he kept a meticulous personal journal documenting his experiences; this journal, unknown to his family for many years, was later discovered by his children and published by his youngest son, Alexander Dominick, in 2018.

After the war, Dominick briefly resumed his legal practice in New York City in 1946 before relocating later that year to Denver, Colorado. In Denver he continued to practice law and became one of the founding partners of the law firm Holland & Hart, which grew into a prominent regional firm. His legal career in Colorado helped establish his reputation in the state and provided a platform for his entry into public service and elective office.

Dominick’s political career began at the state level when he was elected as a Republican to the Colorado House of Representatives, where he served from 1957 to 1961. In 1960 he successfully ran for the United States House of Representatives from Colorado, defeating incumbent freshman Democrat Byron L. Johnson. Taking office in January 1961, he abandoned his active law career to devote himself fully to legislative work. His service in Congress thus began in 1961, during a significant period in American history marked by the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the early stages of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

After serving a single term in the House, Dominick sought higher office and was elected to the United States Senate from Colorado in 1962, defeating one-term incumbent Democrat John A. Carroll by a margin of 53.6 percent to 45.6 percent. He took his Senate seat in January 1963 and was reelected in 1968, defeating former Colorado Governor Stephen L. R. McNichols by 58.6 percent to 41.5 percent. As a senator, Dominick participated actively in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Colorado constituents during a period of profound social and political change. He voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was also a consistent supporter of major environmental legislation, backing the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Within the Senate Republican leadership, he served as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 92nd Congress from 1971 to 1973.

Dominick’s Senate tenure extended through the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, encompassing the Vietnam War, the Great Society era, and the Watergate scandal. By the early 1970s he was suffering from multiple sclerosis, a condition that increasingly affected his health. In the 1974 election, a year that proved favorable to Democrats in the wake of Watergate, he was defeated in his bid for a third Senate term by Democrat Gary Hart, who prevailed by 57.2 percent to 39.5 percent. His political standing was further complicated by controversial public remarks, including a comment suggesting that Ugandans “would rather eat the people than the food” when asked about the value of United Nations food programs, and his characterization of the Watergate affair as “insignificant.”

After leaving the Senate at the end of his term in January 1975, Dominick was appointed by President Gerald Ford as United States Ambassador to Switzerland. He served only briefly in that diplomatic post, as his health continued to decline. He thereafter lived in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, maintaining his ties to the state he had represented in Congress. Peter Hoyt Dominick died at Hobe Sound, Florida, on March 18, 1981. He was interred in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, closing a public career that had spanned service in the Colorado legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and a diplomatic appointment abroad.