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
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
in its ninety-year existence, it was always predominantly rural, and elected a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
lawyer to 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 chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
in all but one of 46 elections.
Phase one: Southwestern Iowa (1873-1883)
Based on the
1870 census
The United States census of 1870 was the ninth United States census. It was conducted by the Census Bureau from June 1, 1870, to August 23, 1871. The 1870 census was the first census to provide detailed information on the African-American popu ...
, Iowa's U.S. House delegation increased from six to nine members, requiring the
Iowa General Assembly
The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of ...
to reapportion the districts. The Assembly divided the Fifth District into two districts – the relocated Sixth District (which included the easternmost ten counties in the old Fifth, with the capital city of
Des Moines
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines ...
) and the new Eighth District (including the remaining thirteen counties, with
Council Bluffs
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan Area. It is loc ...
its largest city). In this phase, the Eighth District included
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
Audubon
The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such org ...
,
Cass
Cass may refer to:
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* Cass (surname), a list of people
* Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey
* Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie
* Ca ...
Page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
,
Harrison
Harrison may refer to:
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* Harrison (name)
* Harrison family of Virginia, United States
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In Australia:
* Harrison, Australian Capital Territory, suburb in the Canberra district of Gungahlin
In Canada:
* Inukjuak, Quebec, or " ...
,
Mills
Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to:
As a name
* Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin
* Mills (given name)
*Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine
Places Uni ...
, and Fremont counties.
During this period, the district was represented by Republican lawyers
James W. McDill
James Wilson McDill (March 4, 1834February 28, 1894) was an American lawyer, state-court judge, Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Representative and United States Senate, Senator from Iowa, state railroad commissioner, ...
(of Union County),
William Fletcher Sapp
William Fletcher Sapp (November 20, 1824 – November 22, 1890) was a United States Attorney and later a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 8th congressional district. He was a nephew of William R. Sapp, who represented a U.S. House dis ...
(of Pottawattamie County) and
William P. Hepburn
William Peters Hepburn (November 4, 1833 – February 7, 1916) was an American Civil War officer and an eleven-term Republican Party (United States), Republican Member of Congress, congressman from Iowa's now-obsolete Iowa's 8th congressional d ...
(of Page County).
Phase two: Far Southern Iowa (1883 to 1885)
The
1880 census
The United States census of 1880 conducted by the Census Bureau during June 1880 was the tenth United States census.Iowa Official Register 1886 at pp. 12-13). It was perhaps the most purely rural congressional district in the state, lacking any major city, and any county with more than 21,000 residents. It included Appanoose, Lucas, Wayne,
Clarke
Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name.
Irish surname origin
Clarke is a popular surname i ...
, Decatur, Union, Ringgold, Adams, Taylor, and Page counties.
Only two elections were held under this configuration (in 1882 and 1884). Each time, incumbent Republican William P. Hepburn was re-elected.
Phase three: Far Southern Iowa (1886 to 1933)
In early 1886 the Republican-controlled General Assembly readjusted the boundaries of the 11-district map, allegedly to increase the number of Republican victories."The Congressional Districts," Waterloo Courier, 1886-04-14. The immediate effect in the Eighth District, however, was an unpleasant surprise to Republican Party regulars. The General Assembly kept the boundaries of the Eighth District the same except that Fremont County was moved from the Ninth District to the Eighth. However, Fremont County resident Albert R. Anderson, a longtime Republican, ran in the general election without the Party's endorsement and on a populist, anti-Railroad platform, defeating incumbent Congressman (and Republican nominee) Hepburn in a stunning upset.Cyrenus Cole, "A History of the People of Iowa," p. 395 (Torch Press, Cedar Rapids: 1921).
The 1886 boundaries of the district would remain in place for 45 years. Until 1900, the population of the district continued to grow gradually with the population of its county-seat small towns. However, because the district lacked any major city, it avoided the sociopolitical changes that occurred in most other Iowa congressional districts in the early twentieth century due to urban migration. The Eighth District became a relatively safe seat for incumbent Republicans.
After Hepburn's 1886 defeat, the Republican Party nominee won every general election in this district except one. Hepburn waited several years before attempting to return to Congress. However, a different winner of the Republican endorsement process,
James Patton Flick
James Patton Flick (August 28, 1845 – February 25, 1929) was a two-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 8th congressional district in the Gilded Age.
Born in Bakerstown, Pennsylvania, Flick moved with his parents to Wapello Count ...
(of Taylor County), defeated Anderson in the next general election. In 1892, after Flick declined to run for a third term, Hepburn recaptured his former seat. Hepburn won his party's nomination and the general election, and was re-elected seven more times. Hepburn was upset a final time in 1908, by Democrat William Darius Jamieson of Page County. After Jamieson declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1910, Republican nominee
Horace Mann Towner
Horace Mann Towner (October 23, 1855 – November 23, 1937) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 8th congressional district and appointed the governor of Puerto Rico. In an ...
won the seat. Following Towner's appointment as
Governor of Puerto Rico
The governor of Puerto Rico ( es, gobernador de Puerto Rico) is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and commander-in-chief of the Puerto Rico National Guard.
The governor has a duty to enforce local laws, to co ...
in 1923 early into his sixth term,
Hiram Kinsman Evans
Hiram Kinsman Evans (March 17, 1863 – July 9, 1941) served part of one term as a Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 8th congressional district.
Born in Walnut Township, Wayne County, Iowa, Evans attended the country schools and Seym ...
(of Wayne County) was elected to serve out the rest of the term but did not seek re-election, and was succeeded by
Lloyd Thurston
Lloyd Thurston (March 27, 1880 – May 7, 1970) was a seven-term Republican U.S. Representative from southern Iowa. First elected in 1924, he served until 1938, when he unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. Senate. By his final term, he had s ...
(of Clarke County). After re-election landslides in 1926 and 1928, Thurston survived a close challenge in 1930.
Residents of Eighth District counties had greater per capita influence because of the Iowa General Assembly's failure to redistrict in response to population shifts reflected in
1910
Events
January
* January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...
and
1920
Events January
* January 1
** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20.
** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...
censuses. The population of every Eighth District county except Appanoose declined between 1900 and 1920, while Iowa's overall population increased.Richard L. Forstall Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990 accessed 2009-07-04. As a result, the Eighth District's total population in 1920 was approximately 185,000, while a perfectly balanced reapportionment plan in 1921 would have created eleven districts with about 218,000 residents each.Editorial, "A Brilliant Idea," Waterloo Evening Courier, 1921-01-26 at 6.
Phase four: North Central Iowa (1933 to 1943)
Due to the
1930 census
The United States census of 1930, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during ...
, Iowa lost seats in Congress for the first time. It lost two seats, forcing the Republican-dominated 1931 General Assembly to adopt a nine-district plan.Iowa Official Register 1933-34 at p. 6.
With one minor change, the old Tenth District in north central Iowa was relabeled as the new Eighth District. One county ( Worth) was shifted into a different district, but the new Eighth District included all of the remaining Tenth District counties: Boone, Calhoun, Carroll, Crawford, Emmet,
Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
,
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilto ...
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was es ...
,
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
Webster
Webster may refer to:
People
*Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname
*Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name
Places Canada
*Webster, Alberta
* Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario
United Stat ...
counties. Like the old Eighth District, the new Eighth District was one of the most rural districts in the state. Since 1856, the area had elected only Republicans to the House. As the Eighth, that tradition continued. The area's incumbent representative, Republican
Fred C. Gilchrist
Fred Cramer Gilchrist (June 2, 1868 – March 10, 1950) was a seven-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa, from 1931 to 1945.
Born in California, Pennsylvania, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, Gilchrist moved with his parents to Ce ...
of Pocahontas County, won every election during this phase, and was one of only two Republican incumbents in Iowa to survive both
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
-era landslides in 1932 and 1934.
Phase five: Northwestern Iowa (1943 to 1963)
The
1940 census
The United States census of 1940, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 122,775,046 people. The census date of record w ...
cost Iowa one of its nine seats in the House, and forced the 1941 General Assembly to adopt the state's first eight-district plan. Republicans again dominated the General Assembly after a rare period of Democratic power in the mid-1930s, and adopted a plan that made it especially difficult for the state's two Democratic congressmen to keep their seats. The former Ninth District, in Iowa's northwestern corner and held by Democrat
Vincent Harrington
Vincent Francis Harrington (May 16, 1903 – November 29, 1943) 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 Pr ...
, was relabeled as the new Eighth District, but with one politically significant change. The new Eighth included Sac,
Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to:
Places Canada
*Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista”
*Buena Vista, Saskatchewan
* Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...
,
Clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...
Osceola
Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...
,
Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...
, and
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
counties of the former Ninth District. However, the General Assembly moved into the Seventh DistrictMonona County, which had put Harrington over the top in his close 1940 re-election race. This change left Harrington especially vulnerable to defeat. Harrington enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, then resigned from Congress and quit the 1942 race, which Republican
Charles B. Hoeven
Charles Bernard Hoeven (March 30, 1895 – November 9, 1980) was an American politician. Elected to represent districts in northern Iowa for eleven terms, from the Seventy-eighth to Eighty-eighth Congresses, in all he held elective office f ...
(of Sioux County) won in a landslide.
The Eighth District's 1941 configuration remained in place for ten elections. Hoeven won every one. When the 1960 census cut Iowa's House delegation to seven members, the former Eighth District became the western end of the new Sixth District, which in 1962 elected Hoeven to his eleventh and final term in the House.
List of members representing the district
The district was eliminated as a result of the 1960 census. The district added Calhoun, Pocahantas, Palo Alto, Emmet, Kossuth, and Humboldt counties and was renamed the 6th district.
See also
*
Iowa's congressional districts
Iowa is divided into four congressional districts, each represented by a member of the United States House of Representatives. The state's congressional map is roughly divided by quadrants in the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest se ...