Missouri's 6th congressional district

Missouri's 6th congressional district
Current Representative		Sam Graves (R–Tarkio)
Distribution	66.19% urban, 33.81% rural
Population (2010)	693,974
Median income	$41,225
Ethnicity	93.8% White, 2.8% Black, 0.8% Asian, 2.4% Hispanic, 0.4% Native American, 0.1% other
Cook PVI	R+7

Missouri's 6th congressional district takes in a large swath of land in rural northwest Missouri. Its largest voting population is centered in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the town of St. Joseph. The district includes all of Kansas City north of the Missouri River (including Kansas City International Airport). In addition to Kansas City's suburbs to the north, it also includes Kansas City's suburbs to the east in Jackson County, Missouri.

Rep, Graves (left) with President George W. Bush in March 2007 at the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri

The district takes in all or parts of the following counties: Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Caldwell, Carroll, Chariton, Clay, Clinton, Cooper, Daviess, De Kalb, Gentry, Grundy, Harrison, Holt, Howard, Jackson, Linn, Livingston, Mercer, Nodaway, Platte, Putnam, Ray, Schuyler, Sullivan, Worth.

Notable representatives from the district include governors John Smith Phelps and Austin A. King as well as Kansas City Mayor Robert T. Van Horn. In 1976, Jerry Litton was killed on election night as he flew to a victory party after winning the Democratic nomination for United States Senate. The visitors center at Smithville Lake is named in Litton's memory.

George W. Bush beat John Kerry in this district 57%-43% in 2004. The district is represented by Republican Sam Graves. Graves easily held on to his seat what was expected to be a tough 2008 election, defeating former Kansas City mayor Kay Waldo Barnes by 22 percentage points.

Redistricting following 2010 Census

After Missouri lost a Congressional seat following the 2010 Census (in part because of losses in population in several rural northern Missouri counties) proposed redistricting calls for the district to encompass most of Missouri north of the Missouri River stretching from border to border from Kansas to Illinois. The biggest geographic addition will be northeast Missouri (including Kirksville, Missouri and Hannibal, Missouri) that was formerly represented by Missouri's 9th congressional district.^[1]

List of representatives

Election results

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

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

• http://2010.census.gov/2010census/popmap/