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Ron Klink
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's4th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Joseph Kolter
Succeeded by	Melissa Hart
Personal details
Born	Ronald Paul Klink (1951-09-23)September 23, 1951 (age 74) Canton, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Linda Hogan ​ (m. 1977)​

Ronald Paul Klink^[1] (born September 23, 1951) is an American television broadcaster and politician and who served four terms as aUnited States Representative fromPennsylvania from 1993 to 2001, as member of theDemocratic Party.^[2]

Klink was born inCanton, Ohio, and graduated from Meyersdale High School in Pennsylvania in 1969.^[3] He married Linda Loree Hogan inGreensburg, Pennsylvania, on August 27, 1977.^[1][4]

Klink originally worked behind the scenes atWTAJ-TV inAltoona, Pennsylvania from 1976 to 1977 and then became weatherman plus fill-in sports anchor until his departure for Pittsburgh in July 1978. He later became a recognizable figure in thePittsburgh area as atelevision news weatherman andreporter onKDKA-TV from 1978 to 1991.

In1992, Klink sought the Democratic nomination for the4th District and defeated five-term incumbentJoe Kolter in the primary.^[5] He was easily elected in November and served four terms in the House, never winning less than 64 percent of the vote. Klink was popular within his district as a moderate Democrat with strong labor ties.

In2000, he left his House seat to run unsuccessfully for theSenate against incumbentRick Santorum.^[3] Klink lost the race by five points. Klink was virtually unknown on the eastern side of Pennsylvania (including the importantPhiladelphia area). Other contributing factors included his conservative stances on social issues and the fact that he had to spend a large amount of money in the crowded Democratic primary.

He had been mentioned as a possible candidate for his own congressional seat against the person who succeeded him, RepublicanMelissa Hart. However, in December 2005, Klink announced he would not run.

According to then-CongressmanCurt Weldon in his bookCountdown to Terror, in 2003, Klink offered Weldon the identity of anintelligence source with information onIraqiuranium purchases.^[5] The agent was thought to beIranianarms dealerManucher Ghorbanifar. The intelligence reportedly later proved to be fabricated.

*Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 1994, write-ins received 6 votes. In 1996, write-ins received 98 votes. In 1998, write-ins received 17 votes.

• 2000 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania

Media related toRon Klink at Wikimedia Commons

• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Voting record maintained by theWashington Post
• Congressman Ron Klink's Webpage at theWayback Machine (archived 2000-08-15)

• 1951 births
• 20th-century United States representatives
• American male journalists
• American television journalists
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
• Journalists from Ohio
• KDKA people
• Living people
• Politicians from Canton, Ohio

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from July 2023
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