Besides portions of southeast Kansas City suburbs, state capital Jefferson City and moderately sized Sedalia and Belton, the district typifies rural and small-town Missouri. Some farming communities have been able to recuperate from severe flooding in 1993 and '95, but many residents were forced to search for more stable employment elsewhere.
Tourism still helps the rural areas.
In Miller and Camden counties, the more modern hotels and retail outlets of the Lake of the Ozarks region attract a different type of vacationer than the predominantly hunting, fishing and recreation waters of the Harry S. Truman and Stockton Lake areas. Across the district, in Jefferson City, state government employs more than 14,000 people. Socially conservative voters in the 4th tend to favor moderate Democrats. Congressional elections heavily favor Democrats in the western counties while Republican votes can be tilled farther east, especially in Webster and Camden counties.