Ohio's 6th congressional district

Ohio's 6th congressional district
Ohio's 6th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Representative	Bill Johnson R–Marietta
Distribution	57.32% rural[1] 42.68% urban
Population (2019)	698,284[2]
Median household income	$52,442[3]
Ethnicity	94.6% White 2.2% Black 1.4% Two or more races 1.0% Hispanic 0.5% Asian 0.2% other
Cook PVI	R+24[4]

Ohio's 6th congressional district is represented by Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH). This district runs along the southeast side of the state, bordering Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It stretches from rural Lucasville through Athens and several older Ohio River industrial towns all the way to the Youngstown city limits.^[5]

History[]

When Robert McEwen was first elected in 1980, the Sixth District of Ohio consisted of Adams, Brown, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Pickaway, Pike, Scioto, and Ross Counties plus Clermont County outside the city of Loveland, Harrison Township in Vinton County and the Warren County townships of Clearcreek, Deerfield, Hamilton, Harlan, Massie, Salem, and Wayne.^[6] At that time, The Washington Post described the Sixth as "a fail-safe Republican district."^[7]

The Ohio General Assembly redrew the Sixth District following the results of the 1980 Census. The boundaries from 1983 to 1987 included all of Adams, Clinton, Fayette, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton and Warren Counties, plus Waterloo and York Townships in Athens County; Wayne Township in Clermont County; Concord, Jasper, Marion, Perry, Union, and Wayne Townships in Fayette County; and Washington Township and the Cities of Miamisburg and West Carrollton in Montgomery County.^[8]

Beginning with the 100th Congress in 1987, adjustments were made by the legislature to the boundaries; reapportionment between censuses is unusual in American politics. A small part of the Montgomery County territory was detached, as were parts of Fayette County in Washington Court House in Union Township and the townships of Jasper and Marion. Part of Brown County was added, Jackson and Eagle Townships. These were the boundaries for the rest of McEwen's service in Congress.^[9]

The district was largely rural and agricultural with no large cities. One of the major industries was the United States Department of Energy's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon, which manufactured uranium for nuclear weapons. The district was 97 per cent white with a median household income of $21,761.^[10]

In 1992, the district was altered significantly to accommodate Ohio's loss of two House seats in redistricting. The state legislature anticipated that Clarence Miller of the neighboring Tenth District would retire, and thus combined the southern end of his district (which included Athens, Gallipolis, and Ironton) with most of the area previously represented by McEwen. Although the district did not include Miller's hometown of Lancaster, Miller decided not to retire and instead challenged McEwen in the Sixth District primary in 1992. The campaign was bitter, and McEwen eked out only a narrow victory. In November, McEwen was upset by Democrat Ted Strickland, a prison psychologist. Strickland himself was defeated in 1994 by Republican Frank Cremeans, but won the seat back in 1996.

For 2002 the district was shifted dramatically eastward. At the same time, it effectively ended the career of James Traficant in the neighboring 17th District by placing his hometown of Poland into the 6th. Traficant opted to run in his old district and lost. The district currently includes all of Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Gallia, Guernsey, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Noble and Washington counties, and portions of Athens, Mahoning, Muskingum, Scioto and Tuscarawas counties.

In 2010, Republican Bill Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat Charles Wilson, returning the seat Republican for the first time since 1997. Following the 2010 United States Census, the bounds of the sixth district were changed again as Ohio lost two seats in Congress.^[11]

In recent years and like much of coal country, the district has swung decidedly toward the Republican Party at local, state and national levels. After being a dead heat in presidential elections in 2000, 2004 and 2008, it swung hard to Donald Trump in 2016; Trump carried it with 69 percent of the vote over Hillary Clinton, his best showing in the state. Trump won it almost as easily over Joe Biden in 2020, with 72 percent of the vote, again his best showing in Ohio.

List of members representing the district[]

Member	Party	Year(s)	Cong ress	Electoral history
District created March 4, 1813
Vacant		March 4, 1813 – April 20, 1813	13th	Member-elect John Stark Edwards died before commencement of term.
Reasin Beall	Democratic-Republican	April 20, 1813 – June 7, 1814		Elected to finish Edwards's term. Resigned.
Vacant		June 7, 1814 – October 11, 1814
David Clendenin	Democratic-Republican	October 11, 1814 – March 3, 1817	13th 14th	Elected to finish Beall's term. Also elected the same day in 1814 to the next term. Lost re-election.
Peter Hitchcock	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1817 – March 3, 1819	15th	Elected in 1816. Lost re-election.
John Sloane	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1819 – March 3, 1823	16th 17th	Elected in 1816. Re-elected in 1818. Re-elected in 1820. Redistricted to the 12th district.
Duncan McArthur	Democratic-Republican	March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825	18th	Elected in 1822. Lost re-election.
John Thomson	Jacksonian	March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1827	19th	Elected in 1824. Lost re-election.
William Creighton Jr.	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1827 – ????, 1828	20th	Elected in 1826. Resigned to when appointed U.S. District Court for the District of Ohio.
Vacant		????, 1828 – December 19, 1828
Francis Swaine Muhlenberg	Anti-Jacksonian	December 19, 1828 – March 3, 1829		Elected to finish Creighton's term. Was not elected to the next term.
William Creighton Jr.	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1829 – March 3, 1833	21st 22nd	Elected in 1828. Re-elected in 1830. [data unknown/missing]
Samuel Finley Vinton	Anti-Jacksonian	March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835	23rd 24th	Redistricted from the 7th district and re-elected in 1832. Re-elected in 1834. [data unknown/missing]
	Whig	March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1837
Calvary Morris	Whig	March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843	25th 26th 27th	Elected in 1836. Re-elected in 1838. Re-elected in 1840. [data unknown/missing]
Henry St. John	Democratic	March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847	28th 29th	Elected in 1843. Re-elected in 1844. [data unknown/missing]
Rodolphus Dickinson	Democratic	March 4, 1847 – March 20, 1849	30th 31st	Elected in 1846. Re-elected in 1848. Died.
Vacant		March 20, 1849 – December 3, 1849	31st
Amos E. Wood	Democratic	December 3, 1849 – November 19, 1850		Elected to finish Dickinson's term. Died.
Vacant		November 19, 1850 – January 7, 1851
John Bell	Whig	January 7, 1851 – March 3, 1851		Elected to finish Wood's term. [data unknown/missing]
Frederick W. Green	Democratic	March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1853	32nd	Elected in 1850. Redistricted to the 9th district.
Andrew Ellison	Democratic	March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1855	33rd	Elected in 1852. [data unknown/missing]
Jonas R. Emrie	Opposition	March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1857	34th	Elected in 1854. [data unknown/missing]
Joseph R. Cockerill	Democratic	March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1859	35th	Elected in 1856. [data unknown/missing]
William Howard	Democratic	March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861	36th	Elected in 1858. [data unknown/missing]
Chilton A. White	Democratic	March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1865	37th 38th	Elected in 1860. Re-elected in 1862. [data unknown/missing]
Reader W. Clarke	Republican	March 4, 1865 – March 3, 1869	39th 40th	Elected in 1864. Re-elected in 1866. [data unknown/missing]
John Armstrong Smith	Republican	March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1873	41st 42nd	Elected in 1868. Re-elected in 1870. [data unknown/missing]
Isaac R. Sherwood	Republican	March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875	43rd	Elected in 1872. [data unknown/missing]
Frank H. Hurd	Democratic	March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1877	44th	Elected in 1874. [data unknown/missing]
Jacob Dolson Cox	Republican	March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1879	45th	Elected in 1876. [data unknown/missing]
William D. Hill	Democratic	March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1881	46th	Elected in 1878. [data unknown/missing]
James M. Ritchie	Republican	March 3, 1881 – March 3, 1883	47th	Elected in 1880. [data unknown/missing]
William D. Hill	Democratic	March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1887	48th 49th	Elected in 1882. Re-elected in 1884. [data unknown/missing]
Melvin M. Boothman	Republican	March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1891	50th 51st	Elected in 1886. Re-elected in 1888. [data unknown/missing]
Dennis D. Donovan	Democratic	March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1893	52nd	Elected in 1890. Redistricted to the 5th district.
George W. Hulick	Republican	March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1897	53rd 54th	Elected in 1892. Re-elected in 1894. [data unknown/missing]
Seth W. Brown	Republican	March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1901	55th 56th	Elected in 1896. Re-elected in 1898. [data unknown/missing]
Charles Q. Hildebrant	Republican	March 4, 1901 – March 3, 1905	57th 58th	Elected in 1900. Re-elected in 1902. [data unknown/missing]
Thomas E. Scroggy	Republican	March 4, 1905 – March 3, 1907	59th	Elected in 1904. [data unknown/missing]
Matthew Denver	Democratic	March 4, 1907 – March 3, 1913	60th 61st 62nd	Elected in 1906. Re-elected in 1908. Re-elected in 1910. [data unknown/missing]
Simeon D. Fess	Republican	March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1915	63rd	Elected in 1912. Redistricted to the 7th district.
Charles Cyrus Kearns	Republican	March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1931	64th 65th 66th 67th 68th 69th 70th 71st	Elected in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. Re-elected in 1918. Re-elected in 1920. Re-elected in 1922. Re-elected in 1924. Re-elected in 1926. Re-elected in 1928. Lost re-election.
James G. Polk	Democratic	March 3, 1931 – January 3, 1941	72nd 73rd 74th 75th 76th	Elected in 1930. Re-elected in 1932. Re-elected in 1934. Re-elected in 1936. Re-elected in 1938. Retired.
Jacob E. Davis	Democratic	January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1943	77th	Elected in 1940. Lost re-election.
Edward Oscar McCowen	Republican	January 3, 1943 – January 3, 1949	78th 79th 80th	Elected in 1942. Re-elected in 1944. Re-elected in 1946. Lost re-election.
James G. Polk	Democratic	January 3, 1949 – April 28, 1959	81st 82nd 83rd 84th 85th 86th	Elected in 1948. Re-elected in 1950. Re-elected in 1952. Re-elected in 1954. Re-elected in 1956. Re-elected in 1958. Died.
Vacant		April 28, 1959 – November 8, 1960	86th
Ward Miller	Republican	November 8, 1960 – January 3, 1961		Elected to finish Polk's term. Was not a candidate for the next term.
Bill Harsha	Republican	January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1981	87th 88th 89th 90th 91st 92nd 93rd 94th 95th 96th	Elected in 1960. Re-elected in 1962. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Re-elected in 1968. Re-elected in 1970. Re-elected in 1972. Re-elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Re-elected in 1978. Retired.
Bob McEwen	Republican	January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1993	97th 98th 99th 100th 101st 102nd	Elected in 1980. Re-elected in 1982. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 1986. Re-elected in 1988. Re-elected in 1990. Lost re-election.
Ted Strickland	Democratic	January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995	103rd	Elected in 1992. Lost re-election.
Frank Cremeans	Republican	January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997	104th	Elected in 1994. Lost re-election.
Ted Strickland	Democratic	January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2007	105th 106th 107th 108th 109th	Elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Retired to become Governor of Ohio.
Charlie Wilson	Democratic	January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011	110th 111th	Elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Lost re-election.
Bill Johnson	Republican	January 3, 2011 – present	112th 113th 114th 115th 116th 117th	Elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020.

Recent election results[]

The following chart shows historic election results.

Competitiveness[]

Election results from presidential races:

Historical district boundaries[]

2003 - 2013

See also[]

• Ohio's congressional districts
• List of United States congressional districts

Notes[]

References[]

Sources[]

• 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

Coordinates: 38°45′N 83°0′W / 38.750°N 83.000°W / 38.750; -83.000