| Iowa's 9th congressional district | |
|---|---|
| Obsolete district | |
| Created | 1870 |
| Eliminated | 1940 |
| Years active | 1873–1943 |
Iowa's 9th congressional district existed from 1873 to 1943. The district was configured four times, first as part of a nine-district plan, then twice in eleven-district plans, then again in a nine-district plan. In the nine-district plans, the Ninth District encompassed the northwestern corner of Iowa, but in the eleven-district plans it encompassed Council Bluffs and nine surrounding counties.
Based on the 1870 census, Iowa's U.S. House delegation increased from six to nine members, requiring the Iowa General Assembly to reapportion the districts. Because the northwestern area of the state was relatively less populous, its congressional district (the ninth) was by far the largest, encompassing more than a quarter of the state's 99 counties, and running from the Minnesota border on the north and the Missouri River on the west to Story County, location of the state's geographic center. In this phase, the Ninth District included Hamilton, Story, Boone, Webster, Humboldt, Kossuth, Emmet, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Calhoun, Greene, Carroll, Sac, Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson, Osceola, O'Brien, Cherokee, Ida, Crawford, Monona, Woodbury, Plymouth, Sioux, and Lyon counties. It included the growing cities of Sioux City, Fort Dodge, and Ames. During this period, the district was represented by Republicans Jackson Orr of Boone County, S. Addison Oliver of Monona County, and Cyrus Carpenter of Webster County.
The 1880 census caused Iowa to receive two more seats in the House, requiring reapportionment of the state into eleven districts. [1] The former Ninth District in northwestern Iowa was generally divided to create the new 11th and 10th districts. [1] When southwest and south-central Iowa were divided among four districts rather than three, the new Ninth District was created. It included Crawford County (of the old Ninth District) and Harrison, Shelby, Audubon, Pottawattamie, Cass, Mills, Montgomery, and Fremont counties (of the old Eighth District). [1] It included Council Bluffs in Pottawattamie County, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska and the historical starting point of the transcontinental railroad.
Only two elections were held under this configuration. Voters elected Democrat William Henry Mills Pusey, then replaced him with Republican Joseph Lyman, both of Council Bluffs.
The Iowa General Assembly soon readjusted the boundaries of the eleven-district map, allegedly to increase the number of Republican victories. [2] [3] Those boundaries would remain in place for 45 years. [4] Fremont County was shifted from the Ninth into the Eighth District, [2] thereby setting the stage for the stunning 1886 upset of incumbent Eighth District Republican Congressman William Peters Hepburn by Fremont County's Independent Republican, Albert R. Anderson. Crawford County was added to the Tenth District, and two counties from Iowa's 7th congressional district (Guthrie and Adair) were added to the Ninth. [2]
Lyman retained his seat after reapportionment, and he was followed by Joseph Rea Reed, Thomas Bowman, Alva L. Hager, Smith McPherson, Walter I. Smith, William R. Green, Earl W. Vincent, and Charles Swanson. All were Republican lawyers except Bowman, a Democratic newspaperman. All were from Council Bluffs except Hager (from Adair County), McPherson (from Montgomery County), Green (from Audubon County), and Vincent (from Guthrie County).
The General Assembly's 45-year failure to reapportion congressional districts resulted in malapportionment, which was particularly severe in certain districts in Iowa. Residents of three other southern Iowa districts (the 1st, 6th, and 8th) gained in per capita influence as the districts' population growth slowed or reversed. [5] The 9th district did not decline in political influence as much as districts that were oversized for too long (like the 10th and 11th) and districts with Iowa's largest cities (like the 2nd, 3rd and 7th). Instead, it was one of three Iowa districts that, by 1920, deviated less than a ten percent from the ideal "one person, one vote" population. [5]
The 1930 census reflected that Iowa, like other rural Great Plains states, had not grown as much as states such as California, causing Iowa to lose seats in Congress for the first time. It lost two seats, forcing the Republican-dominated 1931 General Assembly to adopt a nine-district plan. As in 1872, the Ninth District included Sioux City and the northwestern corner of Iowa, but this time it included only thirteen counties (Dickinson, Clay, Buena Vista, Sac, Ida, Cherokee, O'Brien, Osceola, Lyon, Sioux, Plymouth, Woodbury, and Monona). [6]
The first election under the nine-district plan, in 1932, coincided with the Franklin D. Roosevelt landslide, causing a northwestern Iowa Democrat (Guy M. Gillette of Cherokee County) to win a congressional race for only the second time ever. When Gillette ran for the U.S. Senate he was succeeded by another Democrat, Vincent Harrington of Sioux City. When Harrington could not complete the term he won in 1940 after he resigned to join the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, Republican Dickinson County Judge Harry E. Narey served the final six weeks of his term.
The district was eliminated after the 1940 census. All of the district was renamed the 8th district with the exception of Monona County, which was placed in the 7th district.
Harrison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,582. The county seat is Logan. The county was formed in 1851. It was named for ninth US President William Henry Harrison.
The Omaha metropolitan area, officially known as the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), is an urbanized region in Nebraska and Iowa in the American Midwest, centered on the city of Omaha, Nebraska. The region consists of eight counties, and extends over a large area on both sides of the Missouri River. Covering 4,407 square miles (11,410 km2) and with a population of 967,604 (2020), the Omaha metropolitan area is the most populous in both Nebraska and Iowa, and is the 58th most populous MSA in the United States. The 2003 revision to metropolitan area definitions was accompanied by the creation of micropolitan areas and Combined Statistical Areas. Fremont, in Dodge County, Nebraska, was designated a micropolitan area. The Omaha–Council Bluffs–Fremont Combined Statistical Area has a population of 1,058,125 . Approximately 1.5 million people reside within the Greater Omaha area, within a 50 mi (80 km) radius of Downtown Omaha.
Iowa's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Iowa that covers its northwestern part, bordering the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and the Missouri River. The district includes Sioux City, Ames, Mason City, Fort Dodge, Boone and Carroll; it is currently represented by Republican Randy Feenstra, who has been in office since 2021. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of R+16, it is the most Republican district in Iowa.
Isaac Sterling "Ike" Struble was an American politician who was a four-term Republican Representative of Iowa's 11th congressional district. Serving from 1883 to 1891, the Plymouth County resident was a noted congressional opponent of plural marriage in the Utah Territory.
Samuel Addison Oliver was an American pioneer, lawyer, judge, and politician from western Iowa.
Charles Bernard Hoeven held elective office for forty consecutive years. He was elected or re-elected eleven times to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent districts in northern Iowa. He served in Congress for 22 years, in the Seventy-eighth Congress and in ten succeeding Congresses.
Elbert Hamilton Hubbard, a second-generation congressman, was a four-term Republican U.S. Representative from the now-obsolete 11th congressional district in northwestern Iowa.
Lot Thomas was a state-court judge who also served three terms as a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's now-obsolete 11th congressional district, in northwestern Iowa.
Thomas Cooper Evans was a three-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 3rd congressional district. First elected to Congress in a close race amidst a Republican landslide, in a district that became less Republican through reapportionment, Evans defied expectations by winning re-election by increasingly large margins.
Thomas Jefferson Steele was a one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 11th congressional district in northwestern Iowa. Steele was the first and only Democrat elected to represent the 11th district in its fifty-year history.
Vincent Francis Harrington was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa. Harrington was commissioned in the United States Army Air Forces after the Pearl Harbor attack, resigned from Congress when President Franklin D. Roosevelt disallowed members of Congress from serving in the military at the same time, and died of natural causes while on active duty in England. A Liberty Ship was named in his honor.
Charles Edward Swanson served two terms as a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 9th congressional district. His congressional career ended in the landslide that accompanied the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to his first term as president.
Iowa's 10th congressional district existed from 1883 to 1933, when Iowa sent eleven congressmen to the United States House of Representatives. The district, known as "The Big Tenth," covered large areas of north-central Iowa.
Iowa's 11th congressional district existed from 1883 to 1933, when Iowa sent eleven members of Congress to the United States House of Representatives. The district covered northwestern Iowa.
Iowa's 8th congressional district existed from 1873 to 1963. The district was configured five times. Although the district encompassed four different areas of Iowa in its ninety-year existence, it was always predominantly rural, and elected a Republican lawyer to the United States House of Representatives in all but one of 46 elections.
The 1996 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 5, 1996, as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Iowa District Courts are the state trial courts of general jurisdiction in the U.S. state of Iowa.
