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 is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. He served two terms in Congress from 1999 to 2003.

Biography

Shows was born in Moselle, Mississippi on January 26, 1947. He graduated from Moselle High School in 1965 and from the

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

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 State Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the Lower house, lower Mississippi House of Represen ...

. After the senate, he was elected to the Mississippi Transportation Commission for the Southern District; he served from 1988-1998.

Congress

A Democrat, 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, 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 The 107th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January ...

, Shows introduced the

Federal Marriage Amendment The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), also referred to by proponents as the Marriage Protection Amendment, was a proposed Article Five of the United States Constitution, amendment to the United States Constitution that would legally define marria ...

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.

References

External links

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