Democrat Kathy Ellis and Libertarian Jonathan Lee Shell are running against Republican incumbent Jason Smith in the race to represent Missouri’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House.

The 8th District includes rural southeast and south-central Missouri as well as some counties in southwest Missouri.

Both Smith and Ellis were unchallenged in the Aug. 7 primaries.

__Jason Smith (R)__

Smith was elected to represent the 8th District in a June 2013 special election, and then was re-elect in November 2014.

“It’s always a great opportunity to have your name on the ballot and have the people you've been able to serve for the past two years to give their stamp of approval on the job you’ve done or whether you haven't,” Smith said about his re-election in 2014.

If re-elected, Congressman Smith said he aims to continue to keep Washington out of Missouri, providing health care for Missourians and focusing on farms by protecting rural Missouri.

“My philosophy is the philosophy of the majority of Southeast Missouri,” Smith said. “They just want government off their backs and out of their way.”

Smith serves on the Ways and Means committee, which has all jurisdiction over trade and taxes.

The median household income in the congressional district is less than $40,000 a year, Smith said.

He was one of the sponsors of writing a bill which led to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered rates in the congressional district.

“We’ve always fought to protect the liberties and the freedoms of the people of Southeast Missouri just so that they have more control of their own decisions,” Smith said.

Smith said he hopes to continue the work he has not finished while in office, including legislation and regulation.

“The best strategy is to always be a public servant and work hard to represent the people that you serve,” Smith said.

Smith said as one of youngest members of Congress he hopes that the younger generation does vote.

__Kathy Ellis (D)__

Democratic candidate Ellis has been a clinical social worker and addictions counselor for more than 30 years. She spoke to her colleagues after assessing the issues and decided it was time to run for state representative after participating in the March on Washington on Jan. 21.

“People put the stories of their lives on their signs,” Ellis said. “One woman in particular had a surgical mask over her face, and her sign said, ‘I have a terminal illness, what’s going to happen to me if you take away my health care?’ so that really profoundly moved me.”

Ellis looks to address issues such as health care for all, equal protection under the law, good jobs and job training.

“There are a lot of issues that have not been addressed,” Ellis said. “Our district is in great need of services and improvement in order to correct some of the problems that have occured from neglect.”

Ellis said she developed a campaign strategy by talking to people throughout the district for approximately a year and a half, covering almost 48,000 miles in her car.

“Overwhelmingly what people want is health care, and the vast majority that I have spoken with want Medicare for health care, eventually. We have to correct what’s wrong with the Affordable Care Act,” Ellis said. “We want to move to something that’s going to cover everybody. It can cover seniors, it can cover everybody, and we can do that in a way that will be ultimately cheaper.”

She said she will focus on an infrastructure plan to take care of decaying public buildings as well as assuring public school education.

“We need to support our teachers and we need to support our public universities,” she said.

Ellis said she wants to rebuild the 8th District from the inside out.

__Jonathan Lee Shell (L)__

The Arrow tried contacting Shell, but he did not reply to our messages.