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For more than 17 years Jo Ann Emerson represented the 8th District of Missouri in the United States House of Representatives, one of the first Republican women elected to Congress in the state and a political force who regularly won re-election with more than 70% of the vote. In 2013, she resigned from Congress to become the first woman president and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Known for her spirit of bipartisanship and zeal for "putting people before politics," she fought for constituents at times at the expense of her own party. Today, she's fighting coronavirus.

Jo Ann Emerson to retire from U.S. House Monday, December 3, 2012 ~ Updated 10:55 AM From staff and wire reports U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, announced today she will leave her Congressional post in February to become president and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, a not-for-profit organization that represents rural electric cooperatives and public power districts. The Associated Press reported that Missouri Republican Party Executive Director Lloyd Smith and former state treasurer Sarah Steelman confirmed interest in seeking the seat. Emerson was re-elected in November for a ninth term to the U.S. House of...

Another Missouri Republican consultant suggests that Representative Jo Ann Emerson, the Republican who has represented Missouri’s eighth district since 1996, could be a top contender to replace Todd Akin if he quits. Her name has been making the rounds among party insiders, thanks in part to the fact that she’s currently the longest-serving House member in Missouri. Missouri GOP executive director Lloyd Smith used to be her chief-of-staff. UPDATE: A colleague points out that Emerson is a member of the moderate-leaning Republican Main Street partnership, and generally less rightward than the three — Akin, Sarah Steelman, and John Brunner —...

Missouri Right to Life President Pam Fichter explains why her group endorsed Jo Ann Emerson despite the fact Emerson has voted against life twice since 2005.

Tommy Sowers (D) has surged onto the political scene in Missouri’s 8th Congressional District, garnering national press and media in his challenge of Jo Ann Emerson (R). The landscape of this district is largely a rural district with its largest city of Cape Girardeau of only approximately 37,000 people. It encompasses all or parts of 28 counties, and it is the 11th poorest congressional district in the United States. Before I discuss why I believe Mr. Sowers will lose, Tommy Sowers has a lot of things on his side: He’s young, an Iraqi war veteran (Green Beret and Army Ranger),...

Jo Ann Emerson is sponsoring HR 413, a bill that will provide unions so much power at the bargaining table they'll have no reason to stage lockouts or strikes.

After voting to spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on TARP, Cash for Clunkers and other costly measures, RINO Republican U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri's 8th Congressional District says she opposes such waste.

A RINO Republican, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson will win in November, thanks to a well-oiled fund-raising machine and unmatched name recognition in Southeast Missouri.

Should U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson follow the lead of fellow RINO Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and run as an independent in her re-election bid for Missouri's 8th Congressional District seat?

Two congressional members from Missouri said Tuesday that they plan to file legislation blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from developing its own greenhouse gas rules. U.S. Reps. Ike Skelton, a Democrat, and Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican, sharply criticized federal environmental regulators and warned that because EPA officials are not elected, the agency is not accountable to the farmers, business owners and other Missouri residents who could be hurt. The EPA had concluded in December that that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases represent a danger to public health, which allows it to consider rules limiting them. That...

WASHINGTON - Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive. But that's what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district. The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a — "i think you're an. ..." Emerson says she can't explain how the offensive language made it into the letter, which otherwise reads like a typical response to a citizen's question about last year's testimony of oil executives before the Senate Commerce Committee. "There is...

Lawmaker Puzzled by Obscenity in Letter By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 19, 10:23 PM ET WASHINGTON - Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive. But that's what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson , R-Mo., recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district. The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a — "i think you're an. ..." Emerson says she can't explain how the offensive language made it into the letter, which otherwise reads like a typical response to a citizen's...

WASHINGTON - Nobody expects to get a letter from a member of Congress that ends with an expletive. But that's what happened when Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., recently corresponded with a resident of her southeast Missouri district. The letter ended with a profane, seven-letter insult beginning with the letter a — "i think you're an. ..." Emerson says she can't explain how the offensive language made it into the letter, which otherwise reads like a typical response to a citizen's question about last year's testimony of oil executives before the Senate Commerce Committee. "There is...

2006 Congressional Election Cycle Has Begun  50 Republican Incumbents Undeserving of Support by Pro-life Voters   The Republican National Coalition for Life PAC is currently receiving phone calls from Republican candidates for Congress in the 2006 Republican primaries. Our usual practice is to mail our Candidate Questionnaire to Republican candidates in each district as soon as the filing deadlines are reached. When we receive the results of the questionnaire, they are recorded on our website at www.RNCLife.org so that voters can see for themselves it those seeking to represent them in Washington are truly pro-life. We hope that this service...