Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. (born September 29, 1927) is an American politician from California. He served in the U.S. Congress House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983. He ran on an antiwar platform to become the Republican candidate for U.S. President in 1972 but Richard Nixon became the Republican candidate for the position.

He was born in Loma Linda, Calif., and attended public schools in South Pasadena-San Marino, Calif. . He attended Occidental College and California Institute of Technology under the U.S. Navy's V-5 Pilot Program . He graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford University Law School in 1953.

He served in U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1947, the U.S. Marine Corps from 1950 to 1952, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 1952 to 1960 and the Ready Reserve from 1960 to 1967.

He was deputy district attorney for Alameda County, Calif., from 1953 to 1954 and practiced law in Palo Alto, Calif., from 1955-1967. He was a lecturer on legal ethics at the Santa Clara and Stanford Law Schools from 1964-1967. He was elected as a Republican to the 90th Congress , by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of U.S. Rep. J. Arthur Younger and reelected to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from December 12 1967 to January 3 1983. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1982, but was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for nomination to the United States Senate. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1972. He is now a resident of Woodside, Calif.

In 2004, McCloskey broke with party ranks to endorse John Kerry in his bid to unseat George W. Bush as president of the United States.