Ronnie Shows

Clifford Ronald Shows, commonly known as Ronnie Shows, was born on January 26, 1947, in Moselle, Mississippi. He graduated from Moselle High School in 1965. Raised in southern Mississippi, he developed early ties to the communities he would later represent in public office. His upbringing in a small Mississippi town helped shape his understanding of local concerns and the needs of rural constituents.

Shows pursued higher education at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he graduated in 1971 with degrees in education and political science. This combination of disciplines reflected his dual interests in teaching and public affairs. After completing his studies, he worked as an educator, beginning his professional career as a teacher. His experience in the classroom informed his later legislative interests, particularly in areas related to education and community development.

Shows entered public service at the county level when he was elected circuit clerk of Jefferson Davis County in 1976. In that role, he gained administrative and legal experience, managing court records and county documentation. Building on this local office, he successfully ran for the Mississippi State Senate, serving as a state senator from 1980 until 1988. During his eight years in the Mississippi Legislature, he was involved in state-level policymaking at a time of economic and social change in the region. After leaving the state senate, Shows was elected to the Mississippi Transportation Commission for the Southern District, serving from 1988 to 1998. In that capacity, he played a significant role in overseeing transportation planning and infrastructure development in southern Mississippi for a decade.

A member of the Democratic Party, Shows advanced to national office when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1998. He represented Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District from January 3, 1999, to January 3, 2003, serving two terms in Congress. His service in the House of Representatives occurred during a significant period in American history, spanning the end of the 1990s and the early years of the twenty-first century, including the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As a member of the House, Ronnie Shows participated in the legislative process, contributed to debates on national policy, and represented the interests of his constituents from southern Mississippi.

During the 107th Congress, Shows introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment with 22 cosponsors. This proposed constitutional amendment would have defined marriage in the United States as legally between one man and one woman. Although the amendment attracted attention and debate, it failed to advance in Congress. His legislative record reflected both his regional political base and the broader national issues confronting lawmakers at the time.

Following the 2000 Census, Mississippi lost a congressional seat in the ensuing redistricting, which dramatically affected Shows’s political future. In 2002, his Jackson-based 4th District was dismantled and divided among three neighboring districts. The largest portion, including his home in Bassfield, Mississippi, was placed into the 3rd District, represented by Republican Congressman Chip Pickering. The newly configured district heavily favored Pickering; it was approximately seven points whiter than Shows’s former district and contained over 60 percent of Pickering’s prior constituency. In the resulting 2002 election for the new 3rd District, Pickering defeated Shows decisively, winning more than 60 percent of the vote and bringing Shows’s congressional service to an end on January 3, 2003.

After leaving Congress, Shows returned to private life while remaining identified with his long career as an educator and public servant. A resident of Bassfield, Mississippi, he has continued to be associated with the communities he served at the county, state, and federal levels. His career reflects a progression from local office to the state legislature, to statewide regulatory responsibility, and ultimately to the United States House of Representatives, where he served two terms as a Democratic Representative from Mississippi from 1999 to 2003.