The Eye

Noting that Missouri's 8th District is one of the poorest areas in the nation, Sowers said that he would be "laser-focused on jobs, jobs and jobs."

"These are the sorts of places that people want to live in if they had the economic opportunity," Sowers said. "That's what I'm going to work on my first day and all the way through my last day in office: how we bring more jobs and economic opportunity to this district."

Sowers' military career includes a stint in Kosovo and two tours of duty in Iraq. He did graduate work at the London School of Economics and taught political science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point before returning to Missouri this July to teach at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

"I bring a different type of experience," Sowers said. "I wasn't a high-paid lobbyist. I didn't have the experience of turning the largest surplus in history into one of the largest deficits."

Sowers said that his military service gave him "an 11-year crash course in practical leadership, of being placed in tough situations where, frankly, you had to find the solution."

Sowers is from Rolla, a city of about 16,000 residents that is also the hometown of the Carnahan Democratic political family and the birthplace of Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

"I think there's something in the water here," he joked.

To join McCaskill in the Missouri congressional delegation, though, Sowers will need to accomplish the very difficult task of unseating an incumbent who has topped 70 percent of the vote in each of the past four elections, and in a district that gave Barack Obama just 36 percent of the vote in the 2008 presidential balloting. (Sowers' announcement press release didn't note that he is a Democrat.)

"This is going to be a very tough fight," he said.

CQ Politics presently rates the Missouri 8 race as Safe Republican, mainly because of Emerson's history of landslide victories. The rating is subject to change over the next14 months and we'll monitor this race for signs of competitiveness.

To follow the 2010 House races, check out the CQ Politics election map