Election Time! Representative Edition

It’s early November, and so an event almost as exciting as the Super Bowl is taking place-elections for our federal representatives and local leaders! In the spirit of fostering a good conversation about our candidates, I thought it would be fun to do a quick look at a handful of those running and a quick little opinion one way or another. While I welcome blind followers here, I must insist doing your own research for the local elections (judges, mayors, etc) as well as the amendments. I will not speak on those.

I am doing most of these analyses based off of what each candidate’s website lists as priority issues. This is for the sake of simplicity, because we can all argue to cows come home about each candidate and I’m not trying to dig skeletons out of closets (or hide them) to make a point.

United States Representative (Congressional District 3)

Clay Higgins (Republican) (incumbent)

Representative Clay Higgins has been a character for a long time, ever since becoming the face of the St. Landry Crime Stoppers. He spotlights four issues immediately on his website (with a full list next to it): Agriculture, Energy & the Environment, Healthcare, and Immigration. His house.gov website is well done to explain his position on these issues, but also have more information about what he has done while in office in relation to these issues. His position and his past actions listed on this website seem agreeable to me.

Tia LeBrun (Democrat)

Tia LeBrun came on the scene fairly quietly, I’d say. She is currently a teacher. Her website is unimpressive, and in her key issues she lists Reproductive Freedom as the number one issue. While this is a red flag in and of itself, her website then tries to lump in general healthcare reform under that heading. To make a clearer picture, if anything it should be the other way around, but that’s neither here nor there. Her other two issues, Education and Disaster Relief, are in line with most of the other candidates, though surely her way of going about improving these aspects of our lives are different and not correct in the opinion of others.

Holden Hoggatt (Republican)

Holden Hoggatt is a name I have never heard before. His background is law, where according to his website he spent time as a felony drug prosecutor and now runs a private practice. As far as the issues go, he lists four topics out of five that are being widely promoted by candidates. Economy, Crime, Infrastructure, and Fishing & Agriculture. I like the specific examples he lists for ways he would try to improve each issue. His biggest challenge in this election in my opinion is that the incumbent is in the same party with years of DC experience. Could be a toss up.

These are just a few of the candidates who are running for the 3^rd Congressional District. I did a quick peek of the others, but felt that these three might be the front runners. There is one in particular, however, who does not seem to be fit for any sort of office, federally or locally. What I saw of this candidate’s online presence borders on the line of satire. And while I know we have had elected leaders in the past with similar social media habits, this one lacks a professionalism that the others had.

There are several others who are also running, and while I chose to spotlight these three above I do not want the others completely ignored. The rest of the 3^rd Congressional District ballot for Louisiana is as follows: