Dave Cowell

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Dave Cowell

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2016

Contact

Personal website

Dave Cowell was a 2016 Democratic candidate who sought election to the U.S. House to represent the 8th Congressional District of Missouri.

Elections

2016

See also: Missouri's 8th Congressional District election, 2016

Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Republican. Incumbent Jason Smith (R) defeated Dave Cowell (D) and Jonathan Lee Shell (L) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Smith defeated Todd Mahn, Phillip Smith, and Hal Brown in the Republican primary on August 2, 2016. Smith won re-election in the November 8 election.

U.S. House, Missouri District 8 General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Jason Smith Incumbent	74.4%	229,792
	Democratic	Dave Cowell	22.7%	70,009
	Libertarian	Jonathan Lee Shell	2.9%	9,070
Total Votes				308,871
Source: Missouri Secretary of State

U.S. House, Missouri District 8 Republican Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jason Smith Incumbent	67.5%	65,450
Hal Brown	15.8%	15,342
Todd Mahn	11.9%	11,564
Phillip Smith	4.7%	4,602
Total Votes		96,958
Source: Missouri Secretary of State

Campaign themes

2016

The following issues were listed on Cowell's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

“	Corruption vs. Democracy: I stand against Citizens United. This Supreme Court decision undermines American Democracy by allowing corporations and special interest groups to buy elections and favors from politicians. Special interests spent over 10 million dollars a day on campaign donations and lobbying to influence Congress in the 2014 election alone. As a result, big corporations have substantial impacts on United States policy, while average Americans have little or no influence. Working for a Living Wage: I support an increase in the minimum wage until it becomes a livable wage. Raising the minimum wage will increase earnings for millions of workers and support the economies where they live and work. 89% of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase are older than 20 and 56% are women. Research suggests that a raise in the minimum wage will have a positive effect on the economy as low-wage workers spend their additional earnings, raising demand and job growth. Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare: The GOP talks about how these programs are bankrupting our nation, which is a lie. Social Security alone has a 2.8 trillion surplus, meaning it can pay every benefit owed to eligible Americans for the next 19 years and more than three-quarters after that. I support expanding these programs by lifting the cap on taxable income making the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share into these much needed programs. By doing this we will be able to extend the solvency of Social Security for the next 50 years. Missouri’s Unions and Right to Work: Right to Work laws are a collaborative effort between big corporations and corrupt politicians who want to weaken unions and weaken the rights of workers. The average worker in states that have passed Right to Work earn $5971 less annually than states without right to work. In states with Right to Work laws 25.9 percent of jobs are in low-wage occupations compared with 18 percent of jobs in other states. States with right to work have higher rates of poverty. I stand with Unions in the fight against Right to Work. Predatory Trade Deals: I stand against predatory trade deals that take jobs away from working Americans. Recent trade deals are taking jobs overseas and harming the working families. You have my commitment that I will never vote for any trade deals that could harm our American manufacturing industry. District 8 has 35,000 jobs in manufacturing and we cannot afford to lose these jobs.	”
—Dave Cowell's campaign website, http://www.davecowellforcongress.com/the-issues

See also

• United States House of Representatives
• Missouri's 8th Congressional District election, 2016
• Missouri's 8th Congressional District

External links

Suggest a link

• Campaign website
• Facebook page
• Twitter feed

Footnotes

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Missouri's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Josh Hawley (R)

Eric Schmitt (R)

Representatives

District 1

Wesley Bell (D)

District 2

Ann Wagner (R)

District 3

Bob Onder (R)

District 4

Mark Alford (R)

District 5

Emanuel Cleaver (D)

District 6

Sam Graves (R)

District 7

Eric Burlison (R)

District 8

Jason Smith (R)

Republican Party (8)

Democratic Party (2)