Population (2000) 646,628 Cook PVI R+10 | Median income 34,910 | |
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Current Representative Bill Shuster (R–Hollidaysburg) Distribution 40.61% urban
59.39% rural Ethnicity 96.9% White
1.6% Black
0.4% Asian
0.9% Hispanic
0.1% Native American
0.1% other | ||
Pennsylvania's 9th congressional district has been a relatively safe seat for the Republicans since 1933. In 2014, the long-time Republican incumbent, former businessman Bill Shuster, won 52.8% of the vote in a three-way Republican primary race over retired Coast Guard search and rescue pilot Art Halvorson (34.5%) and livestock farmer Travis Schooley (12.7%). In the 2012 general election, he beat his Democratic opponent, nurse Karen Ramsburg, taking 62% of the vote. In 2010, he won 73% of the vote, and in 2008 won 64%. Shuster was first elected to the district in 2001, effectively inheriting the seat from his father, Bud Shuster, who had held the seat since 1973.
According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, in 2010 the 9th was the most Republican district in Pennsylvania (and the Industrial Midwest), then with a score of R +17. Redistricting slightly increased the number of Democrats in the district, with the addition of majority-Democratic Fayette County as well as some of the Democratic portions of Washington, Greene, Cambria and Westmoreland Counties.
1795–1823: One seat
The district was created in 1795 from Pennsylvania's At-large congressional district.