Truthfully, I don’t know a lot about the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and its inner workings, but I know they’ve hired one great patriot in former US Congressman, “Doc” Ralph Abraham to help them.

His advice in this role will be of great value to our country especially to those in rural America who often get forgotten about by the folks in the big city. It doesn’t surprise me that he took this new task on with little personal fanfare. He doesn’t jump up and down seeking TV cameras or glory it’s not his style or the way you do things in Alto where he’s from. The about five-minute video that my friends at “This Week in Louisiana Agriculture” did on Doc when he was put into the Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction in 2024 is probably the best overview of his career trajectory of his previous jobs.

As one who was living in Alexandria at the time when he 1^st ran for Congress in 2014, I got to know him as a candidate in 2014, donated financially to his campaign, and was thrilled when he won his election to Congress later that year. Later starting in 2017, I got to see a different side of his having been unexpectedly asked to serve on his Congressional staff as his District Coalitions Director. He was a great boss to me and the others on our team. He truly wanted what was best for our district, state and country. I saw that many times that this column wouldn’t have enough space to print.

In late 2018 and early 2019 he knew (& several of us agreed) the best thing for his district and Louisiana was for him to become Governor. Unfortunately, those efforts came up short for whole range of reasons. Our region of the state was truly devastated by this, and he knew that bringing President Trump to Monroe was the only way to start the healing process that was badly needed for our part of the state. I was very proud to be in Monroe that night and a part of Team Abraham that helped pull that off.

While several of us encouraged him to run for re-election to Congress in 2020, he knew it was time to pass the mantle to another generation. As many of you know he successfully passed that mantle on to his long-time Chief of Staff Luke Letlow. When Luke unfortunately died just before he was to be sworn into Congress, he stepped up again and made sure our current US Congresswoman Julia Letlow had everything she needed to win by a large margin in the 1^st round of the special election in 2021.

He went back to doing what he had done and was “the Doctor” in his swath of rural Louisiana. I became one of his patients when I needed medical review of an unexpected hospital visit the Sunday before. Waiting in line that day at the doctor’s office you could tell his patients & his medical staff absolutely loved and adored the man. He was ready to serve again when Governor Landry called him to help Louisiana in a couple of roles over at the Louisiana Department of Health.

Dr. Abraham, thank you for your continued quiet humble Christian leadership you’ve shown over the years. I know you will do great in your work at the CDC.  President Trump, I don’t know how much you were involved personally in this appointment, but thank you for doing this