John T. Kostuck (October 7, 1892 - August 2, 1960) was an American salesman, piano tuner, and legislator.
Born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Kostuck was blinded at age fourteen in a blasting accident while working on a farm. Kostuck went to the Wisconsin School for the Blind for his high school education. Kostuck then went to University of Wisconsin - Madison and then taught high school at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton, Virginia. He then became a salesman and piano tuner in Stevens Point.
Kostuck ran in the 1926 Republican primary election for Wisconsin's 8th congressional district against incumbent Edward E. Browne, in a district so Republican that neither the Democrat nor the Socialist had the right to appear on the general election ballot; he came in a distant third in a three-way race.[1] He tried again in 1928, receiving 22.3% of the vote in a head-to-head contest with Browne.[2]
In 1930 he chose instead to run for the Republican nomination for the Portage County seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a progressive. He won his party's nomination, and unseated Democratic incumbent Michael Mersch, becoming the first blind member of Wisconsin's legislature.[3] He would be re-elected fourteen times to that seat, the first time (1930) as a Republican, the next four times (1934-1940) as a member of the newly created Wisconsin Progressive Party. In 1942, he switched his affiliation to the Democratic Party, and ran unopposed in both the primary and general elections,[4] as he would in every subsequent election through 1958. He died in Stevens Point in 1960 while still in office[5] [6] and was succeeded by fellow Democrat Norman Myhra (himself disabled; he had lost both hands in combat during World War II)[7]