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* [[St. Cloud, Missouri|St. Cloud]]
* [[St. Cloud, Missouri|St. Cloud]]
* [[West Sullivan, Missouri|West Sullivan]]
* [[West Sullivan, Missouri|West Sullivan]]
==Government==
Local government in Crawford County is provided by the elected officials. At present, all of these positions are held by members of the [[Republican]] party.<ref>http://crawfordcountymo.net/index_files/Page670.htm</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Countywide official !! Name !! Party
|-
| Assessor || Kellie Vestal || Republican
|-
| Circuit Clerk || Karen Harlan || Republican
|-
| County Clerk || John G. Martin || Republican
|-
| Collector || Pat Schwent || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (presiding) || Leo Sanders || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (District 1) || Rob Cummings || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (District 2) || Jared Boast || Republican
|-
| Coroner || Darren Dake || Republican
|-
| Prosecuting Attorney || David Smith || Republican
|-
| Public Administrator || Franky Todd || Republican
|-
| Recorder || Kim Cook || Republican
|-
| Sheriff || Darin Layman || Republican
|-
| Surveyor || Mark Mueller || Republican
|-
| Treasurer || Karen Sikes || Republican
|}
At the state level, Crawford County makes up part of two legislative districts in the Missouri House of Representatives. The northwestern corner is part of the 62nd District, which also includes all of Maries County and portions of Cole, Gasconade, Miller, Osage, and Phelps Counties. It is currently represented by Bruce Sassmann (R-Bland), who was elected to his first term in November 2020, defeating [[Democratic]] candidate Nancy Ragan.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Bruce Sassmann || Republican || 14,429 || 79.578%
|-
| Nancy J. Ragan || Democratic || 3,703 || 20.422%
|}
Sassmann roughly matched his overall total in Crawford County, winning 233 votes to 62 for Ragan.
The remainder of the county is part of the 120th District, which also includes part of Phelps County. It is currently represented by Jason Chipman (R-Steelville), who was re-elected to his fourth and final term in November 2020, defeating Democratic candidate Theresa Schmitt.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Jason Chipman || Republican || 12,846 || 77.074%
|-
| Theresa Schmitt || Democratic || 3,821 || 22.926%
|}
Chipman roughly matched his overall total in Crawford County, winning 8,146 votes to 2,316 for Schmitt.
In the Missouri State Senate, Crawford County is part of the 16th District, which also includes Camden, Dent, Phelps, and Pulaski Counties. It is currently represented by Justin Dan Brown (R-[[Rolla, Missouri|Rolla]]), who was elected to his first term in November 2018, defeating [[Democratic]] candidate Ryan Dillon.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Justin Dan Brown || Republican || 42,382 || 70.077%
|-
| Ryan Dillon || Democratic || 18,097 || 29.923%
|}
Brown roughly matched his overall total in Crawford County, winning 5,830 votes to 2,553 for Dillon.
At the federal level, Crawford County is part of Missouri's 8th Congressional District, which includes most of southeast and south-central Missouri. It is represented by [[Jason Smith]] (R-[[Salem, Missouri|Salem]]), who won re-election in November 2020, defeating Democrat Kathy Ellis.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Jason Smith || Republican || 253,811 || 76.86%
|-
| Kathy Ellis || Democratic || 70,561 || 21.367%
|-
| Tom Schmitz || Libertarian || 5,854 || 1.773%
|}
Smith slightly overperformed his average margin in Crawford County, winning 79.498% of the vote.<ref>https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/s_default</ref>
'''Political Culture'''
As the above numbers indicate, Crawford County is a solidly Republican county at all levels, even more so than many other parts of the region. Since the 1880s, it has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate on only five occasions, the last being for [[Bill Clinton]] in 1996. After that time, it has never given the GOP candidate less than 57% of the vote. In 2016, [[Donald Trump]] won the county overwhelmingly with 77.86% of the vote, increasing his total to 79.51% in the 2020 election.<ref>https://enrarchives.sos.mo.gov/enrnet/CountyResults.aspx</ref>
Like much of southern Missouri, Crawford County can be included within the [[Bible Belt]], combining social [[conservatism]] with economic [[populism]]. In 2004, it voted overwhelmingly in favor of Constitutional Amendment 2, which recognized marriage as between a man and a woman only--the measure passed in Crawford County with 79.48% support. In 2006, while the state narrowly passed an amendment to fund embryonic stem-cell research, the county defeated the measure with 56.13% voting against. At the same time, it often supports economic measures that appear to favor the working and middle class. In the November 2006 election, the county, like the state, supported a proposed increase in the state minimum wage, with 76.78% voting in favor; in November 2018, a similar measure (which passed the state at large) received 53.34% of the vote. These results generally align with the rest of southern Missouri.
==References==
==References==