Hoagland was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1978 and served until 1986 when he declined to seek re-election.
Congress
In 1988, when Hal Daub decided to run for the U.S. Senate, Hoagland ran for the open seat and was elected to serve in the 101st Congress. Hoagland's freshman term in the House was the subject of the book House Rules: A Freshman Congressman's Initiation to the Backslapping, Backpedaling, and Backstabbing Ways of Washington by journalist Robert Cwiklik.[2] He was re-elected in 1990 and 1992. In 1994, he was defeated for re-election by Jon Christensen; his defeat was attributed to the Republican Revolution. No other Democrat would be elected to represent Nebraska in the U.S. House until Brad Ashford was elected in 2014.
Throughout his terms in Congress, Hoagland was a strong advocate for the environment. In 1990, The League of Conservation Voters released a National Environmental Scorecard ranking members of Congress on their environmental voting records. Peter Hoagland scored a perfect 100%.[3]
^Cordes, Henry J. (November 1, 2007). "Hoagland is praised by former colleagues – Members of the House pause to remember the late Nebraska Democrat". The Omaha World-Herald Newspaper, Omaha, Douglas County, NE, USA.