Ronnie Shows
Clifford Ronald Shows is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Mississippi.
Shows was born in Moselle, Mississippi. He attended Lawrence County Academy in Monticello. He graduated from Moselle High School and from the University of Southern Mississippi 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.
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, Shows introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment with 22 cosponsors. If passed, it 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.
