Special election (2001) After his father, Republican U.S. Congressman
Bud Shuster, resigned from Congress in January 2001 following a strong rebuke from the
House Ethics Committee for his relationship with a transportation lobbyist, On May 15, 2001, Shuster won the special election, defeating Democratic Centre County Commissioner
Scott Conklin 52%–44%. Shuster won nine of the district's eleven counties. Conklin won Centre (58%) and
Clearfield (55%). To date, it is the last time that a Democrat has come close to winning what has long been one of the most Republican districts in Pennsylvania.
Bush era elections (2002, 2004, and 2006) In the redistricting after the
2000 Census, Centre County was taken out of the district while portions of
Somerset,
Cambria,
Indiana,
Fayette, and
Cumberland Counties were added to the district. In November 2002, the district reverted to form, and Shuster won his first full term, defeating John R. Henry 71%–29%. Unlike 2002, Shuster was challenged in the 2004 Republican primary. He defeated businessman Michael DelGrosso 51%–49%. In November, he won re-election to his second full term, defeating Democrat Paul Politis 70%–30%, winning every county in the district. Shuster won re-election to his third full term in 2006, defeating Democrat Tony Barr 60%–40%. He lost only three counties: Clearfield, Cambria, and Fayette.
Obama era elections (2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014) Shuster won re-election to his fourth full term in 2008, defeating Democrat Tony Barr again, 64%–36%. This time he won all fourteen counties. In 2010, Shuster won re-election to his fifth full term, defeating Democrat Tom Conners 73%–27%, winning all fourteen counties. After redistricting following the
2010 Census, the 9th moved even further to the west, gaining portions of
Westmoreland,
Greene, and
Washington Counties. Shuster won re-election to his sixth full term, defeating Democrat Karen Ramsburg 62%–38%. With the
113th Congress, elected in 2012, Bill Shuster became Chairman of the
House Transportation Committee, a position he would hold for the following 2 Congresses. In 2014, Shuster was in a primary with Bedford County businessman Art Halvorson and Franklin County project manager Travis Schooley. The primary was held on May 20, 2014. Shuster won with 53% of the vote. Art Halvorson received 34% and Travis Schooley received 13%. In 2015, Shuster, who was the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman, said he was dating
Shelley Rubino, the vice president of government affairs for
Airlines for America (A4A), a lobbying group for airlines.
Politico said their relationship had started in summer 2014 and had signed an agreement that Rubino would not lobby Shuster or his staff. Shuster, however, had other ties to A4A, having hired a former A4A executive onto the aviation subcommittee, and Shuster's chief of staff is married to an executive of A4A.
Politico also noted the similarity to his father's conflicted lobbyist relationship and resignation.
Trump era election (2016) and retirement In 2016, Shuster won reelection in what would later turn out to be his eighth and final full term. He was challenged by
Arthur Halvorson in the Republican primary, with Shuster only barely winning a majority, at 50.6%, in the two-way race. Described as "one of the more bizarre and nasty congressional campaigns", Shuster's ex-wife was in his campaign ads, defending him and their family. In a set of events that even Shuster's opponent described as unprecedented, Halvorson received enough
write-ins in the Democratic primary to become the Democratic Party's candidate in the 9th district. Halvorson, who is considered to be further to the right than Shuster, accepted the Democratic nomination, but vowed to caucus as a conservative Republican if elected to Congress. In the general election, Shuster beat Halvorson again, this time with 63.3% of the vote. Shuster announced in January 2018 that he wouldn't be seeking reelection later that year, and that he thus would be retiring with the end of the
115th Congress in January 2019. The Congressman, who has been Chairman of the
House Transportation Committee since 2013, said he would be spending his final year in the House working with
President Trump on what he describes as a "massive infrastructure bill". Shuster cited his desire to pass such a bill, and the fact that worrying about getting reelected would distract from that, as reasons for his retirement. ==Time in the House of Representatives==