Emanuel Cleaver II (born October 26, 1944) is a United Methodist pastor and American politician who has represented in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005. Cleaver represents a district that includes the southern three-fourths of Kansas City, including all of the city south of the Missouri River, as well as the more rural counties of Lafayette, Ray, and Saline east of Jackson. He is a member of the Democratic Party, and chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 2011 to 2013. Before his election to Congress, Cleaver served three terms on the Kansas City Council from 1979 to 1991, until he was elected mayor, serving two terms from 1991 to 1999. Early life, education, and career Emanuel Cleaver II was born on October 26, 1944, in Waxahachie, Texas. He grew up in public housing in Wichita Falls, Texas. He graduated from Prairie View A&M University, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, in 1972. Cleaver then moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he founded a branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and received a Master of Divinity degree from St. Paul School of Theology. Cleaver was the pastor at the St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1972 to 2009. Kansas City councilman and mayor Cleaver served as a Kansas City councilman from 1979 to 1991 and as mayor of Kansas City from 1991 until 1999. He was Kansas City's first African American mayor. David Helling, an opinion columnist for the Kansas City Star, wrote of Cleaver's tenure as mayor: "Kansas City's first African-American mayor defined the modern concept of the job: a professional staff, high visibility and a clear agenda. He was also a moral leader. His speech at a local rally after the Rodney King verdict averted a riot and was his finest moment. Yet Cleaver's actual record as mayor is spotty. Tax and spending initiatives floundered at the polls, and City Hall scandal was common. The crime rate was far too high." Cleaver is a cousin of exiled Kansas City Black Panther leader Pete O'Neal. In 1997, Cleaver unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a pardon for O'Neal from President Bill Clinton. Cleaver is also a cousin of the late Eldridge Cleaver, another prominent figure in the Black Panther Party. U.S. House of Representatives After the compromise Budget Control Act deal had been reached to resolve the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis, Cleaver called