When
Bob McEwen was first elected in
1980, the sixth district of Ohio consisted of
Adams,
Brown,
Clinton,
Fayette,
Highland,
Pickaway,
Pike,
Scioto and
Ross counties plus
Clermont County outside the city of
Loveland,
Harrison Township in
Vinton County and the
Warren County townships of
Clearcreek,
Deerfield,
Hamilton,
Harlan,
Massie,
Salem and
Wayne. At that time,
The Washington Post described the sixth district as "a fail-safe Republican district". The
Ohio General Assembly redrew the sixth district following the results of the
1980 United States census. The boundaries from 1983 to 1987 included all of
Adams,
Clinton,
Fayette,
Highland,
Hocking,
Jackson,
Pike,
Ross,
Scioto,
Vinton and
Warren counties, plus
Waterloo and
York townships in
Athens County;
Wayne Township in
Clermont County;
Concord,
Jasper,
Marion,
Perry,
Union and
Wayne townships in
Fayette County; and
Washington Township and the cities of
Miamisburg and
West Carrollton in
Montgomery County. Beginning with the
100th Congress in 1987, adjustments were made by the legislature to the boundaries; reapportionment between
censuses is unusual in American politics. A small part of the Montgomery County territory was detached, as were parts of Fayette County in
Washington Court House in
Union Township and the townships of
Jasper and
Marion. Part of
Brown County was added,
Jackson and
Eagle Townships. These were the boundaries for the rest of McEwen's service in Congress. The district was largely rural and agricultural with no large cities. One of the major industries was the
United States Department of Energy's Portsmouth
Gaseous Diffusion Plant at
Piketon, which manufactured
uranium for
nuclear weapons. The district was 97 per cent
white with a median household income of $21,761. In 1992, the district was altered significantly to accommodate Ohio's loss of two House seats in redistricting. The state legislature anticipated that
Clarence Miller of the neighboring Tenth District would retire, and thus combined the southern end of his district (which included Athens, Gallipolis, and Ironton) with most of the area previously represented by McEwen. Although the district did not include Miller's hometown of Lancaster, Miller decided not to retire and instead challenged McEwen in the Sixth District primary in 1992. The campaign was bitter, and McEwen eked out only a narrow victory. In November, McEwen was upset by Democrat
Ted Strickland, a prison psychologist. Strickland himself was defeated in 1994 by Republican Frank Cremeans, but won the seat back in 1996. For 2002 the district was shifted dramatically eastward. At the same time, it effectively ended the career of
James Traficant in the neighboring 17th District by placing his hometown of
Poland into the 6th. Traficant opted to run in his old district and lost. The district currently includes all of
Belmont,
Carroll,
Columbiana,
Gallia,
Guernsey,
Jackson,
Jefferson,
Lawrence,
Meigs,
Monroe,
Noble and
Washington counties, and portions of
Athens,
Mahoning,
Muskingum,
Scioto and
Tuscarawas counties. In 2010, Republican
Bill Johnson defeated incumbent Democrat
Charles Wilson, returning the seat to Republicans for the first time since 1997. Following the
2010 United States census, the bounds of the sixth district were changed again as Ohio lost two seats in Congress. In recent years and like much of coal country, the district has swung decidedly toward the
Republican Party at local, state and national levels. After being a dead heat in presidential elections in
2000,
2004 and
2008, it swung hard to
Donald Trump in
2016; Trump carried it with 69 percent of the vote over
Hillary Clinton, his best showing in the state; the district swung to the right by 30 percent, more than any other in the nation. Trump won it almost as easily over
Joe Biden in
2020, with 72 percent of the vote, again his best showing in Ohio. == Composition ==