Missouri's 8th congressional district

Missouri's 8th Congressional District is one of 435 congressional districts in the United States and one of nine congressional districts in the state of Missouri. The district encompasses rural Southeast Missouri and South Central Missouri as well as some counties in Southwest Missouri. The district stretches from as far south as the Bootheel north to the St. Louis exurbs of Farmington and surrounding areas in the Lead Belt and as far east as the counties along the Mississippi River to as far west along the Ozark Plateau near Branson.

The district is anchored in Cape Girardeau.

A predominantly rural district, MO-08 is heavily Republican at the federal level. In 2004, President George W. Bush received 63% of the vote in the district over U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) who clinched 36%; four years later in 2008, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) carried the district with 61.92% over U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) who received 36.42%.

The district is currently represented by U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican from Cape Girardeau. Emerson was first elected to the seat in a special election in 1996 following the death of her husband Bill Emerson, a Republican who had held the seat until his death. No Democrat has held the seat in Congress in nearly 30 years. In 2010, however, Emerson faced her best-funded Democratic challenger to date in Tommy Sowers, a political science professor at the Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla. CQPolitics.com rated the seat as "Safe Republican," meaning that the incumbent was all but sure to retain the seat. On November 2, 2010, Emerson defeated Sowers by 66% to 29%.

Character

Missouri's 8th is a relatively diverse congressional district. Although it is fairly conservative and Republican-leaning at the federal level, Democrats often perform well here in local and state elections. Bill Clinton, a Democrat from neighboring Arkansas, managed to carry the 8th District both times in 1992 and 1996 by strong margins, but since then, the district solidly supported Republicans George W. Bush and John McCain in the past three presidential elections. The district did, however, back former Attorney General and now Governor Jay Nixon (D) over Republican Kenny Hulshof in Missouri's gubernatorial election in 2008.

At the local level, Democrats control a majority of elected offices in Southeast Missouri. Republicans control more local offices in the more extreme-western portions of the district namely in Southwest Missouri. In presidential elections, Democratic candidates often run best in the Bootheel, which is the most impoverished region in the district (and the state, for that matter) and contains a significant number of African Americans, as well as the Lead Belt region which contains a core constituency of labor unions and mining.

The district takes in a large swath of the Bible Belt with evangelical Protestantism being the dominant religion in most counties in the district which influences many conservative voters especially on hot-button social issues like abortion, gay rights and gun control, as hunting is all but a way of life and rite of passage for many people in the district. Ethnically, it is one of the whitest districts in the state (and the nation, for that matter) and maintains a rural character where agriculture and farming are the backbone of the economy and are very important to voters in the district. Outside the Bootheel, all counties in the district are at least 90% white. Socioeconomically, it is the poorest district in Missouri and the 11th poorest congressional district in the country.

List of representatives

Counties

There is a total of 28 counties included in MO-08.

2008 Presidential Election Results by County

The table below shows how individual counties in MO-08 voted in the 2008 presidential election. U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) swept the district with 61.92 percent of the vote while U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) received 36.42 percent, a 25.50-percent margin of victory for the GOP.

2008 Missouri Democratic Presidential Primary Election Results by County

The table below shows how individual counties in MO-08 voted in the 2008 Missouri Democratic Presidential Primary. Former U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) won a decisive victory in MO-08, carrying all 28 counties in the district by significant margins over U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois). MO-08 was her strongest showing in the state’s primary on Super Tuesday, carrying the district with over 63 percent of the vote. She received less than 60 percent in only two counties: Cape Girardeau County, home of Southeast Missouri State University, and Phelps County, home of the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR).

2008 Missouri Republican Presidential Primary Election Results by County

The table below shows how individual counties in MO-08 voted in the 2008 Missouri Republican Presidential Primary. Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas) carried 25 out of the 28 total counties in MO-08 over U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and former Governor Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts).

2008 Gubernatorial Election Results by County

The table below shows how individual counties in MO-08 voted in the 2008 Missouri gubernatorial election. Former Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) carried the district with 52.11 percent of the vote over former U.S. Representative Kenny Hulshof (R).

Largest Cities

The 10 largest cities in MO-08 are as follows.

County Incomes

Median Household Incomes

Median Family Incomes

Education

Public School Districts

Public Universities

• Southeast Missouri State University [1] - Cape Girardeau
  • Southeast Missouri State University-Kennett (Satellite Campus)
  • Southeast Missouri State University-Malden (Satellite Campus)
  • Perryville Area Higher Education Center (PAHEC) - Perryville (Satellite Campus)
  • Sikeston Area Higher Education Center (SAHEC) - Sikeston (Satellite Campus)
  • Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing
• Missouri University of Science and Technology [2] - Rolla (Formerly known as the University of Missouri-Rolla [UMR])
• Missouri State University [3] - Springfield (Formerly known as Southwest Missouri State University) - Located in Missouri's 7th congressional district
  • Missouri State University-Mountain Grove (Satellite Campus)
  • Missouri State University-West Plains (Satellite Campus)

Community Colleges

• Mineral Area College - Park Hills
  • Mineral Area Regional Medical Center School of Radiation Technology
• Three Rivers Community College - Poplar Bluff

References

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 
• Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present