Cape Girardeau County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri; its eastern border is formed by the Mississippi River. At the 2020 census, the population was 81,710. The county seat is Jackson, the first city in the US to be named in honor of President Andrew Jackson. Officially organized on October 1, 1812, the county is named after Ensign Sieur Jean Baptiste de Girardot, an official of the French colonial years. The "cape" in the county's name is named after a former promontory rock overlooking the Mississippi River; this feature was demolished during railroad construction. Cape Girardeau County is the hub of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson metropolitan area. Its largest city is Cape Girardeau.
Cape Girardeau is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. At the 2020 census, the population was 39,540. The city is one of two principal cities of the Cape Girardeau-Jackson, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Alexander County, Illinois, Bollinger County, Missouri and Cape Girardeau County, Missouri and has a population of 97,517. The city is the economic center of Southeast Missouri and also the home of Southeast Missouri State University. It is located approximately 100 miles (161 km) southeast of St. Louis and 150 miles (241 km) north of Memphis.
Melvin Eugene Carnahan was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 51st Governor of Missouri from 1993 until his death in a plane crash in 2000. A Democrat, he was elected posthumously to the U.S. Senate; his widow, Jean, served in his stead for two years until a special election.
Roy Dean Blunt is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator for Missouri, a seat he was first elected to in 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 33rd Missouri Secretary of State (1985–1993) and U.S. Representative for Missouri's 7th congressional district (1997–2011).
Matthew Roy Blunt is an American former naval officer and politician who served as the 54th Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2009. Before his election as governor, Blunt served ten years in the United States Navy, was elected to serve in the Missouri General Assembly in 1998, and as Missouri's Secretary of State in 2000. He grew up in a political family; his father, Roy Blunt, has served in a variety of political offices.
Glen Maxey is an American politician from Austin, Texas, who was the first openly gay member of the Texas Legislature. Active in the fight for gay rights, Maxey was a central figure in the establishment of facilities for the education and care of HIV-infected individuals, especially the AIDS Services of Austin (ASA). In 2008, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Tax Assessor-Collector in Travis County, Texas.
Stephen Nathaniel Limbaugh Sr. is a former United States District Judge who held concurrent appointments to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri from 1983 until his retirement in 2008. He was appointed by president Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s after a distinguished career as a trial lawyer in Missouri. Like his father Rush Limbaugh Sr. before him, Limbaugh served as president of the Missouri Bar from 1982 to his appointment to the bench. His son, Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., is a federal judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Robert Mayer is an American attorney who has also worked as a farmer, broadcaster, and industrial engineering technician. He was also a Republican member of the Missouri State Senate. His term expired in 2012 and he was replaced by Doug Libla. He resides in Dexter, Missouri, with his wife, the former Nancy Tuley, and their three children, Jason, Dustin, and Daniel.
Gary Nodler is a Missouri politician who served as a Republican in the Missouri State Senate, where he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is a resident of Joplin, Missouri, married to the former Joncee Edwards with one son, Justin and one granddaughter Rachel.
Tupac Amaru Hunter is an American politician who is a former member of the Michigan Senate, representing the 5th district which encompasses northwest Detroit, Dearborn Heights and Inkster. He served as the Minority Floor Leader.
Cam Ward is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Alabama Senate, representing District 14 from 2010 to 2020. He previously represented District 49 of the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010.
Joseph Keaveny is an American attorney, banker, and politician who served as a member of the Missouri Senate for the 4th district from 2009 to 2016. After leaving the Senate, he was appointed to serve as Administrative Law Judge of the Missouri Department of Labor.
Jason Thomas Smith is an American businessman and politician who has been the U.S. representative for Missouri's 8th congressional district since 2013. The district comprises 30 counties, covering just under 20,000 square miles of southeastern and southern Missouri.
Franklin Cannon was an American politician from the state of Missouri. A Democrat, he served as the state's 5th Lieutenant Governor. Cannon was the son-in-law of Missouri's 3rd Governor, Daniel Dunklin.
A special election for Missouri's 8th congressional district was held on June 4, 2013, following the resignation of Jo Ann Emerson on January 22, 2013, to head the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The Republican and Democratic parties selected their own nominees without a primary.
Carter Martin Buford (1876–1959) was an educator, attorney, and Democratic politician in the American state of Missouri. A six-term member of the Missouri State Senate, Buford is best remembered as the sponsor of legislation establishing a network of rural public schools throughout the state during the first decade of the 20th century.
Robert Onder Jr. is an American politician and physician from the state of Missouri. A Republican, he is a member of the Missouri Senate serving the 2nd District, in the St. Charles area. He was elected Assistant Majority Floor Leader in 2015. Onder previously was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2007 to 2008.
Holly Thompson Rehder is an American politician. A Republican, she was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2013 to 2020, elected from the from the 148th district. She had been a member of the Missouri Senate from the 27th district since January 2021, having been elected to that body in the November 2020 election.
Kevin Lamar Windham Jr. is a Democratic member of the Missouri General Assembly representing the state's 85th House district.
Tony Luetkemeyer is an attorney and the state senator for the 34th Senatorial District of the Missouri Senate, representing Buchanan and Platte Counties in Northwest Missouri. He is a member of the Republican Party.
