I got asked last week in Washington DC why I was wearing the Letlow Lagniappe and both the original & the much nicer 56^th Speaker of the House Red, White & True Krewe bead. For the record, I also had on the Republican Elephant tie and the “LA Stands for Life” lapel pin and on some days the Black Tie & Boots Presidential Inaugural Ball 2017 cowboy boots that a friend of mine gave me. 

As a practicing Southern Baptist rooted in the Delta of Louisiana, Mardi Gras is a complicated holiday. As one whose mother was teaching Physical Education at a Catholic school in Monroe when I was conceived and lived some in Lafayette in younger childhood years you understand Mardi Gras in Louisiana is a reality you can’t avoid or pretend doesn’t exist. I enjoy a good king cake like most folks in Louisiana do and don’t have any problem eating seafood on Fridays even though I don’t have any dietary or religious restrictions on menu choices on Fridays during Lent.

Having written the internal autopsy on the nightmare from hell known as the 2019 Gubernatorial race of 5^th District US Congressman Dr. Ralph Abraham, we painfully watched rich folks from Baton Rouge blow millions of dollars telling all sorts of half-truths, lies and distortions in an ego driven power play for the sole purpose of screwing Louisiana from having one of the finest Republican gentlemen that our region had produced, Dr. Ralph Abraham from becoming Governor. Some of those same rich kids from Baton Rouge obviously haven’t learned from the error of those ways in 2019 and are now foolishly trying to do the same thing to US Congresswoman Julia Letlow in her race for the US Senate.

Instead of giving my thoughts on some of these rich folks from Baton Rouge which might ruin my Christian witness to some of you, I’ll relay a story from the aftermath of the 2019 nightmare from hell primary.  Those of us from our part of the world followed Congressman Abraham’s lead and graciously brought President Trump to Monroe to start to bring Republican unity. I was graciously handed a ticket in the VIP Section where one of the first folks I saw waiting to get in was a then pregnant University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) Administrator, Dr. Julia Letlow. I can assure you if she was the liberal some of those ludicrous ads that are claiming, she wouldn’t have been at the Trump 2019 Monroe Rally with all of us. She had plenty of reasons not to go with a young child at home and a full-time job at ULM. I can also assure she did all she could behind the scenes to help elect Ralph Abraham in 2019 which those of us that supported him known would have ended a bunch of DEI nonsense and a lot of other garbage that then Governor John Bel Edwards & his team was slamming down the throat of every Louisiana public university during his tenure as Governor.

We are mighty proud that when Congresswoman Letlow was approached about running for US Senate here in Louisiana she insisted President Trump would be fully engaged & pre-endorse her before she would become a US Senate candidate. We are also proud she stuck to her guns on this. Otherwise, those of us from the 5^th District had no desire to give up the US House Appropriations seat she had rightfully earned & delivered from.  She was entrusted by her Republican colleagues in Congress in 2022 with that honor when the 1^st seat on that committee opened after she got elected to Congress in 2021 before she even completed her 1^st term in Congress. This wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t earned the trust and confidence of not only her Republican US House colleagues from Louisiana and the rest of the US House Leadership but rank and file members of the US House of Representatives who love & trust her judgement. Last week when talking to folks about her race you could feel the love for her US Senate bid all over the board. Didn’t matter if you were talking to conservative members of US Congress, staff members, Trump appointees or one of her former interns. The love didn’t stop there; it was found on phone calls back home to Louisiana last week and today and even at the DFW airport when I ran into one of her Rapides Parish supporters.

There are plenty of other reasons you should self-identify yourself as a God-fearing conservative Republican these days in Washington, DC. When you are thanking the Secret Service, Capitol Hill Police, the National Guard and other members of law enforcement or the military you see in DC they know you absolutely mean it that you are not a security risk. It also opens a conversation like the one I had at a coffee shop with Sam Brown where I got to tell him my parents voted for his unsuccessful US Senate bid in Nevada. Sam Brown probably knew I was the safest fellow in that coffee shop he could talk to due to my attire.

As a Southern Baptist, Mardi Gras is complicated. Unabashedly supporting Speaker Mike Johnson in his re-election bid both for his Congressional seat and the Speakership and making sure US Congresswoman Julia Letlow has every tool at her disposal to win the Republican Primary currently scheduled for May 16^th, the run-off June 27^th if necessary and the general election on Nov. 3 is not.  At some point I look forward to enjoying some Gulf of America Cake from my friends at Delicious Donuts in Lake Charles to celebrate victories but until then let’s go “Win the Day” rather its Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday or any other day doing where we can be of service to help Speaker Johnson in his re-election and Congresswoman Letlow in her US Senate race here be victorious!