In our continuing quest to arm Louisiana voters with the information needed to make wise choices in the upcoming elections, another of the most important, must-win races for conservatives is in Senate District 13 which encompasses parts of East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Tangipahoa parishes. The seat is being vacated by Rogers Pope who was eligible to serve until 2028 but chose not to run for reelection.

If Louisiana is to make a bold turnaround from its decades-long downward spiral into educational and economic impotence, we need courageous officeholders who are not afraid to buck the Good Old Boy (GOB) network that has suffocated Louisiana for decades. We have one such daring legislator in the race for Senate District 13, Rep. Valarie Hodges and another GOB RINO, Rep. Buddy Mincey, a drunken sailor-level big spender of our tax dollars who has provided more support to Democrats, including soon to be ex-governor John Bel Edwards, and radical unions than he has shown support for President Donald Trump. More on that shortly.

Valarie Hodges, on the other hand, is and has been a longtime, very vocal supporter of President Trump on her social media. She has the endorsement of the Louisiana Freedom Caucus PAC in this race and is a champion of conservative causes.

This year alone, Hodges authored and had passed into law a bill that would allow offering instruction in Biblical history and literature in our public high schools. She authored another bill that was signed into law that protected teachers from civil liability when acting to protect a student or teacher from assault/battery by students—a no brainer in the war zone that has enveloped much of our public school system. Hodges also authored and had passed into law a bill that would bar foreign adversaries from purchasing, leasing or acquiring land. Another no brainer.

She is a pro-life, pro-gun and pro-God champion whom we need to engage in the battle to wrest control of the Senate and our beloved Louisiana out of the hands of the GOB Mob.

In contrast, Hodges’ opponent, Buddy Mincey, is the poster child for the GOB Mob. He is a former Democrat who converted to a Republican for purely political reasons and, once elected, he joined the “Fraud Squad” who crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats to elect RINO extraordinaire Clay Schexnayder to the top post of Speaker of the House. As a payoff for Mincey’s betrayal of the GOP caucus, he was appointed by Schexnayder to the House Ways and Means Committee, the powerful tax-writing committee. Some of the Democrats he empowered with his vote for Schexnayder were given committee chairmanships instead of his Republican colleagues.

It should be no surprise Mincey would be a turncoat. There were indications in his race for House District 71 when he embraced support from John Bel Edwards’ sycophant teachers’ unions like the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, who called Edwards their “Friend of Education” and from the Louisiana Association of Education who played a key role in Edwards’ reelection. Both of these unions are at the forefront of pushing their hard-core radical social agenda on the children of Louisiana.

In 2021 when Valarie Hodges offered a bill to include teaching World War II and the Holocaust in public school offerings for middle and high school students, Mincey worked to help the Legislative Black Caucus defeat the bill.

Mincey didn’t just join with the Democrats to vote against the bill, he added a poison pill amendment that would mandate state control over private and homeschool education. It was an obscene display that exposed him as the Fraud Squad RINO he truly is. The amendment was narrowly defeated but Mincey joined the Legislative Black Caucus and just two other of the worst of the worst RINOs in the House to vote against Hodges’ bill. Democrats and other RINO senators killed the bill in the Senate.

Pause to consider why teaching the truth of World War II and the Holocaust are so objectionable to these legislators. It has a familiar stench.

Mincey did bring bills of his own this year, two that are of particular concern. One would have grabbed $9.5 million in funding designated to the Comite River Diversion Canal, a grossly overdue project vital to deal with future flooding in Baton Rouge and Livingston Parish, to be spent on other projects. He had no clear answer for what he would use the money for if he were successful in raiding the fund, but thankfully he failed. On the House floor, Mincey called up the bill from the calendar eight times only to face Hodges and others in their beatdown of his attempts to divert this crucial flood control funding.

Another of his bills of particular concern was his attempt to put Louisiana into a multi-state teachers’ licensing compact that would literally have given emergency powers to a licensing board that would have allowed the board to shut down schools. Louisiana would be subject to fees and penalties to get out of this compact that were yet to be defined. Who would commit the fate of our teachers and our public schools to a board whose rules and bylaws were yet to be defined?

Mincey donated to Rep. Garrett Graves in 2021 and to State Treasurer John Schroeder in 2019. He has not given vocal, social media or monetary support to any other candidates, including any gubernatorial or candidate for President including Donald Trump. His father, a former longtime Democrat officeholder, did contribute to soon-to-be former Governor John Bel Edwards.

Mincey also voted to support a $1.9 billion spending increase in the legislature this year. Hodges was one of the 19 principled legislators who voted against that measure.

There are many other examples of bad judgment voting for tax increases and out-of-control spending that warrant further scrutiny than the space allows in this piece, but we will soon oblige with another.

For these and reasons soon to be revealed, Valarie Hodges is the true champion needed for Senate District 13 to help clean up the GOB Mob mess in the Senate so Louisiana can once again thrive.