Pennsylvania's 9th congressional district is located in the east central part of the state and encompasses all of Bradford, Columbia, Lebanon, Montour, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties, as well as parts of Berks, Luzerne, and Lycoming counties.

According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, in 2010 the 9th was the most Republican district in Pennsylvania (and the Industrial Midwest), then with a score of R+17.

In 2014, the long-time Republican incumbent, former businessman Bill Shuster, won 52.8% of the vote in a three-way Republican primary race over retired Coast Guard search and rescue pilot Art Halvorson (34.5%) and livestock farmer Travis Schooley (12.7%).

In the 2012 general election, he beat his Democratic opponent, nurse Karen Ramsburg, taking 62% of the vote.

Shuster announced in January 2018 that he would retire from Congress at the end of his term, and did not run for re-election in 2018.