Clay Higgins

Clay Higgins
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 3rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2017
Preceded by	Charles Boustany
Personal details
Born	(1961-08-24) August 24, 1961 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Eloisa Rovati (Divorced) Stormy Rothkamm Hambrice (Divorced) Becca Higgins
Children	4
Education	Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
Website	House website

Glen Clay Higgins (born August 24, 1961) is an American politician and law enforcement officer from the state of Louisiana. He is the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. He won the runoff election held on December 10, 2016, in which he defeated fellow Republican Scott Angelle. Although an elected official, he also holds a current law enforcement commission as a Reserve Deputy Marshal of Lafayette.

Career

Higgins served in the Military Police Corps of the Louisiana National Guard for six years. He then worked as a manager of a car dealership in Opelousas, Louisiana. He left the job in 2004 to become a reserve officer for the Opelousas Police Department. After serving in the department for four years, he resigned in lieu of accepting disciplinary action for his striking of a handcuffed suspect before spending the next three years working for the Port Barre Police Department. He joined the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office in 2011. When the office's public information officer was reassigned in October 2014, Higgins succeeded her in the role and was promoted to captain.

As public information officer, Higgins made videos for Crime Stoppers. He began by using standard scripts in his first weeks, but then began to highlight various criminals by name. His videos went viral, and he was referred to as the "Cajun John Wayne". One of his videos was featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2015. He resigned from the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office in February 2016 because of the public outcry against one of his videos. In March 2016, he was sworn in as a Reserve Deputy Marshal in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The former deputy of St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office resigned in lieu of being fired for making controversial statements after the Sheriff warned him against using disrespectful and demeaning language toward the public. The Sheriff ordered him to "Tone down his unprofessional comments on our weekly Crime Stoppers messages", underlining "a growing undertone of insubordination and lack of discipline on Higgins’ part". The Sheriff also took issue with Higgins's misuse of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office's badge of office for personal profit and gain, citing Higgins's fully uniformed appearance with his marked patrol unit in a commercial for Acadian Total Security as well as its use in the sale of t-shirts and shot glasses from Higgins's personal website. In an investigative article published in Salon it is revealed that "He also negotiated paid speaking appearances with other police departments. In one email, Higgins discussed his request for a speaker’s fee that included shopping money for his wife and part of the fuel for his friend’s private plane. Clay Higgins had previously worked for the Opelousas Police Department but also resigned under allegations of unprofessional and unlawful conduct. The Opelousas Police Department’s Discipline Review Board found that "Clay Higgins used unnecessary force on a subject during the execution of a warrant and later gave false statements during an internal investigation. Although he later recanted his story and admitted to striking a suspect in handcuffs and later releasing him". Higgins resigned before disciplinary action could be imposed.

U.S. House of Representatives

2016 campaign

After Higgins' resignation from the St. Landry Police Department, Chris Comeaux, a Republican campaign staffer, recruited Higgins to run for office. In May 2016, Higgins declared his candidacy for the 2016 election to represent the Third District of Louisiana. He finished in second place in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 8, behind Scott Angelle. He faced Angelle in a runoff election on December 10 and won with 56.1 percent of the votes cast.

Tenure

Higgins was sworn into the House of Representatives on January 3, 2017.

Higgins sleeps on an air mattress on the floor of his Capitol Hill office. He works out and showers in the House gymnasium in the early morning and spends more time at his desk in the evenings to prepare for the expected House votes the next day. Throughout a typical week, Higgins sits on three committees and six sub-committees and keeps in consultation with the party leadership. The Louisiana delegation, Higgins said, is united on most issues but must serve many constituencies. There is civility in the delegation even when members disagree with one another, he added. He rejected claims that he is "a bomb thrower" in the political process, despite his own nonconventional congressional campaign and support for President Donald Trump.

Higgins voted in favor of the American Health Care Act of 2017.

On June 5, 2017, Congressman Higgins announced a 'historically rare' feat, securing an additional $10 million from the Army Corps of Engineers' discretionary fund to support dredging the Calcasieu Ship Channel.

In December 2017, Higgins voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, believing it will lower taxes for Americans and improve the economy.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency
  • Subcommittee on Transportation and Protective Security
• Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Environment
  • Subcommittee on Oversight
  • Subcommittee on Space
• Committee on Veterans' Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Health

2018 campaign

Higgins is being challenged by Republican Josh Guillory, an Iraqi war veteran and Lafayette family law attorney.

Political stances

Domestic issues

Gun law

Higgins is pro-gun. In 2017 he stated "The modern hysteria over guns is another example of our weakened society. Guns weren't really regulated at all prior to the 60s in America. Throughout our history, prior to just 50 years ago, a child could purchase a gun from any seller, if daddy sent him with the money. Prior to just 50 years ago, a child could purchase a gun from any seller, if daddy sent him with the money."

National security

Higgins supported President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order to temporarily curtail travel from countries known to be hotspots of terrorism until better screening methods are devised. He stated that “The president’s executive order for a short-term restriction on visa entries from seven countries, that are known to foster terrorists, combined with a systematic review of our immigration and vetting procedure, is reasonable.”

On June 4, 2017, Higgins posted a message advocating that "Christendom" should kill all "radicalized Islamic suspects".

"The free world... all of Christendom... is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all."

-Clay Higgins

Social issues

Abortion

Higgins is pro-life.

LGBT

Higgins is against same-sex marriage and believes that marriage is between a man and a woman. He says, despite having "one very good gay friend" he believes that states should have the right to dictate their own marriage laws, rather than the Supreme Court deciding it.

Auschwitz video

In early July 2017, Higgins posted a five-minute video on YouTube from Auschwitz concentration camp, including from within one of the gas chambers where he stated that "this is why homeland security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible". This video was widely condemned as inappropriate, including by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum who said in a Twitter post that "the building should not be used as a stage". Higgins later removed the video from YouTube and issued an apology.

In July 2017, Higgins posted on Facebook a call to hunt and kill suspected Muslim extremists.

Personal life

Clay Higgins is the seventh of eight children. He was born in New Orleans, but his family moved to Covington, Louisiana, when he was six years old. After graduation from Covington High School, he attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Higgins had a child with his first wife, Eloisa Rovati Higgins. The child, a daughter, died a few months after she was born. Higgins and his wife divorced; she later died as a result of her injuries from an automobile accident. Higgins and his second wife, Rosemary "Stormy" Rothkamm Hambrice, have three children. They divorced in 1999 (she filed on grounds of adultery). He lives in Port Barre with his wife, Becca Higgins.

Hambrice later filed a lawsuit against Higgins making his unpaid child support arrearages in the amount of over $140,000.00 executory in Louisiana

External links

• Campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
• Appearances on C-SPAN

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Charles Boustany	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district 2017–present	Incumbent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Josh Gottheimer	United States Representatives by seniority 400th	Succeeded by Trey Hollingsworth