| 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 encompassedCouncil Bluffs and nine surrounding counties.
Based on the 1870 census, Iowa'sU.S. House delegation increased from six to nine members, requiring theIowa 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 theMinnesota border on the north and theMissouri River on the west toStory County, location of the state's geographic center. In this phase, the Ninth District includedHamilton, 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, andLyon counties. It included the growing cities of Sioux City, Fort Dodge, and Ames. During this period, the district was represented by RepublicansJackson Orr of Boone County,S. Addison Oliver of Monona County, andCyrus 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 new11th and10th 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) andHarrison,Shelby,Audubon,Pottawattamie,Cass,Mills,Montgomery, andFremont counties (of the old Eighth District).[1] It included Council Bluffs in Pottawattamie County, across the Missouri River fromOmaha, Nebraska and the historical starting point of thetranscontinental railroad.
Only two elections were held under this configuration. Voters elected DemocratWilliam Henry Mills Pusey, then replaced him with RepublicanJoseph 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 theEighth District,[2] thereby setting the stage for the stunning 1886 upset of incumbent Eighth District Republican CongressmanWilliam Peters Hepburn by Fremont County's Independent Republican,Albert R. Anderson. Crawford County was added to the Tenth District, and two counties fromIowa's 7th congressional district (Guthrie andAdair) were added to the Ninth.[2]
Lyman retained his seat after reapportionment, and he was followed byJoseph Rea Reed,Thomas Bowman,Alva L. Hager,Smith McPherson,Walter I. Smith,William R. Green,Earl W. Vincent, andCharles 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 (the1st,6th, and8th) 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 the2nd,3rd and7th). 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 ruralGreat Plains states, had not grown as much as states such asCalifornia, 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 theFranklin 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 JudgeHarry 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.
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