Clifford Ronald Shows (born January 26, 1947) is an American educator and former Democratic member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. He served from 1999 to 2003.

Biography

Shows was born in

Moselle, Mississippi Moselle is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in southern Jones County, Mississippi. The community is part of the Laurel micropolitan area. History Moselle has a post office, with the ZIP code 39459. Moselle is located on ...

. He attended

Lawrence County Academy Lawrence County Academy was a private, co-educational PK–12 school in Lawrence County, Mississippi, near Monticello. The school has been described as a segregation academy. History In January 1970, the United States Court of Appeals for the F ...

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

. He graduated from Moselle High School and from the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

in 1971, earning degrees in education and political science. Shows worked as a teacher, before being elected as circuit clerk of Jefferson Davis County in 1976. From 1980 until 1988 he was a member of the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

Congress

Shows was elected to Congress in 1998 and represented Mississippi's 4th district from January 3, 1999 until January 3, 2003. In 2002, Shows was pitted against fellow Congressman

Chip Pickering Charles Willis "Chip" Pickering Jr. (born August 10, 1963) is an American businessman and former politician who has been the incumbent chief executive officer of Incompas since 2014. Pickering represented as a Republican in the United States ...

, a Republican from the neighboring 3rd District, after Mississippi lost a seat in the 2000 Congressional redistricting. Shows' Jackson-based district was dismantled and split between three neighboring districts. The largest chunk, including his home in Bassfield, was placed in Pickering's district. The new district heavily favored Pickering; notably, it was seven points whiter than Shows' old district and contained over 60 percent of Pickering's former territory. Pickering soundly defeated Shows with over 60% of the vote in the new 3rd District. In the

107th Congress 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Shows introduced the

Federal Marriage Amendment The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), also referred to by proponents as the Marriage Protection Amendment, was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would legally define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. The FMA ...

with 22 cosponsors and would have amended the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as legally between one man and one woman. The Amendment failed to advance in Congress. Shows is a resident of

Bassfield, Mississippi Bassfield is a town in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 254 at the 2010 census, down from 315 at the 2000 census. As of 2017, the estimated population was 216. Geography Bassfield is located in southeastern ...

References

External links

* 1947 births Living people Democratic Party Mississippi state senators University of Southern Mississippi alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi People from Jones County, Mississippi People from Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi Schoolteachers from Mississippi 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians {{Mississippi-politician-stub