Steny Hoyer began his career in politics by winning a seat in the Maryland Senate at the age of twenty-seven. Congressman Hoyer, now serving his fifteenth term, is the longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland and also became the highest-ranking member of Congress from the State, after he was asked to serve as House Majority Leader in November 2006 and again in 2008. Congressman Hoyer is a Democrat the Fifth Congressional District who prioritizes environmental issues. He supports every major piece of environmental legislation that passes through Congress and even co-sponsored the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act, which allocated more than $10 million to the Bay's cleanup in the 1990s. He and his late wife, Judith Pickett Hoyer, have three children, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.