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Peter Schwartzkopf

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ16875361 ↗
Source-derived summary

Peter C. Schwartzkopf (born January 15, 1955) is an American politician and former Speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented the 14th district from 2002 to 2024. His district covers Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, and Dewey Beach in Sussex County. Prior to his election to the House, he was a state police officer.

He served as Majority Leader of the House from 2009 to 2013 before being elected Speaker of the House in 2013. He stepped down from his role as speaker in June 2024 and was replaced by Valerie Longhurst.

In 2023, Schwartzkopf announced his intention to not seek reelection in the following year. He subsequently endorsed former state auditor Kathy McGuiness to take his seat representing the 14th district. Schwartzkopf is a longtime friend of McGuiness, who was forced to resign as auditor in 2022 after her criminal conviction for misdemeanor conflict of interest, a charge which Schwartkopf described as "bogus" in his endorsement. McGuiness subsequently lost the primary election to Claire Snyder-Hall, who was elected to fill the seat in the general election.

Editorial summary

“Peter Schwartzkopf” enters the record as american politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Peter, Schwartzkopf and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955, 2002, 2024, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955-01-15. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Peter, Schwartzkopf and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Peter Schwartzkopf” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Peter, Schwartzkopf and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16875361. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2002, 2024 and 2009.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Peter Schwartzkopf”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Peter Schwartzkopf primary sources, Peter Schwartzkopf archive and Peter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Peter Schwartzkopf”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Peter Schwartzkopf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.