Congressional elections

Cramer was district attorney from 1981 to 1990, until Rep. Ronnie Flippo ran unsuccessfully for governor. Cramer ran for the vacant Congressional seat in 1990, defeating Republican Al McDonald with 67% of the vote. He was handily reelected in 1992. However, he was nearly defeated in 1994 by Republican businessman Wayne Parker—the closest that a Republican had come to winning one of the few remaining districts (prior to 2010) in the former Confederacy to have never elected a Republican since Reconstruction. Cramer only held onto his seat by 1,770 votes. Cramer managed to defeat Parker with less difficulty in 1996 and never faced serious opposition again, winning five more terms by over 70 percent of the vote before running unopposed in 2006.

Tenure

In the House, Cramer was a supporter of the International Space Station and an advocate for spending increases in missile defense, as Huntsville has long been a center for research and development of these two projects, as Redstone Arsenal—located in the district—is home of the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

A liberal in his early days, he largely supported the Democratic line for his first three terms. The 1994 near-defeat, however, led Cramer to move more to the right in his voting. He often broke with his party on issues such as abortion, gay rights, gun control, taxes, regulation of business, and the environment. Cramer was one of only four Democrats in the House to vote for the tax cut bill of 2003. However, unlike a few other conservative Democrats, he did not vote in favor of any of the articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

Cramer's voting record placed him near the center of the House; however, he was often cited as unpredictable in his votes. Child protection was a longtime legislative project of Cramer's pursuant to his work with the area prior to his ascent to the House.

Cramer was a long-time member of the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of conservative and moderate House Democrats.^[5] Because of his largely conservative positions, he was encouraged by fellow Alabama politician Sen. Richard Shelby to make the same switch that he did and register as a Republican. Cramer resisted these efforts, and won reelection easily in his increasingly conservative district despite his party affiliation.

On October 10, 2002, Cramer was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He also voted in favor of some measures favored by the Republican majority, including the continued occupation of Iraq and re-authorization of the Patriot Act. However, Cramer joined fellow Democrats in opposing President Bush's plan to send 21,000 additional troops to Iraq.

Committees

• House Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • The Select Intelligence Oversight Panel
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Technical & Tactical Intelligence
• The Blue Dog Coalition, Co-Founder
• The Congressional Missing & Exploited Children's Caucus, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder
• The End the Death Tax Caucus, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder
• The House Anti-Terrorism Caucus, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder
• The Tennessee Valley Authority Caucus, Co-Chairman