Russ Carnahan (born July 10, 1958) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic party from the state of Missouri. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November 2004 to represent the Third Congressional District of Missouri (map) which is part of the greater St. Louis area. He took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives at the start of the 109th United States Congress on January 4, 2005.

Born in Columbia, Missouri, Carnahan is the son of the late Mel Carnahan, a former Missouri governor, and Jean Carnahan, a former U.S. senator. He is a recipient of the Eagle Scout award. His sister, Robin Carnahan was elected as Missouri's Secretary of State in 2004. Russ Carnahan received a bachelor's degree and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Carnahan's first run for political office was in 1990 when he ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in the 8th district against then Rep. Bill Emerson. He then moved to St. Louis, where in 2000 he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He narrowly defeated political activist Jeanette Mott Oxford in the Democratic primary election [1] by a scant 64 votes, and went on to win the general election by a wide margin [2]. He was re-elected to the Missouri House in 2002.

In 2004 Carnahan ran for the Third Congressional District seat, which was being vacated by retiring Representative and former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. Carnahan narrowly won a ten-candidate Democratic primary election in 2004 with 22.9% of the vote, finishing less than 1,800 votes ahead of his nearest rival, political activist Jeff Smith, who garnered 21.3%. In the general election Carnahan garnered 52.9% against Republican candidate William Federer, an author and Religious Right activist, who had previously run against Gephardt on several occasions.