A Republican, Hoekstra has represented the state's 2nd Congressional district (map) since taking office in 1993 following his win in the 1992 election.

Born in Groningen in the Netherlands, Hoekstra emigrated to Holland, Michigan at the age of three with his family. (Hoekstra's district has the largest concentration of Dutch-Americans in the country.) Hoekstra attended Hope College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975 and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan in 1977.

Prior to running for Congress, Hoekstra worked for office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, eventually rising to vice president for marketing. In 1992, he ran in the Republican primary for the 2nd District, which had been renumbered from the 9th district after the 1990 Census.

The district had been held for 26 years by Guy Vander Jagt, longtime chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Hoekstra rode his bicycle across the district, charging that Vander Jagt had served in Congress for too long.

He promised to serve no more than six terms (12 years) in the House, and also promised not to take any money from political action committees. He scored a monumental upset, winning by almost six percent. This primary win was tantamount to election in the 2nd district, the most Republican district in Michigan; Republicans have held the district for all but four years since its creation in 1873.

In 2004, Hoekstra announced that he would run for a seventh term, citing his membership on the Select Committee on Intelligence. He also took a considerable amount of political action committee money during his time in office. However, his constituents apparently weren't upset by these developments. As in his previous five reelection campaigns, he faced no significant opposition in the Republican primary or in the general election. Shortly after the primary, he was named chairman of the committee, succeeding Porter Goss, who was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency.