By james art WASHINGTON – Heavily favored to win re-election, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow is campaigning without the strident partisan rhetoric favored by many of her fellow Republicans.
During a recent stop in Baton Rouge, she barely mentioned former President Donald Trump — other than to say she supports his candidacy — she praised Lindy Boggs, a Democrat who represented New Orleans in the U.S. House of Representatives, and endorsed the use of “targeted brands” of spending that the Conservatives have scoffed at.
“I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, when there’s a need in your community, anyone can get behind those improvements, those needs that people need, whether it’s a sewage treatment plant, drinking water,” or whatever number of projects funded with funds she gave back to the district, Letlow added in an interview after the event in Baton Rouge.
Her opponents on Nov. 5 are Democrat Michael Valien Jr. and Republican MV “Vinny” Mendoza. Neither has raised enough money to report.
The Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC, ranks Letlow at 79.4 percent conservative — the lowest among Louisiana GOP incumbents — for her 34 votes on issues important to the group.
CPAC accused Letlow of joining with Democrats and moderate Republicans to allow the Affordable Care Act to require private health insurance to cover certain types of birth defects.
But Letlow did join her fellow conservatives in voting against banning women from crossing state lines for abortions and in voting to withdraw from the UN Climate Change Convention.
On the liberal side, the American Civil Liberties Union ranked Letlow at 25% for her votes on issues of their choice.
Letlow voted against ACLU-backed legislation that would require employers to make certain accommodations for pregnant workers with medical needs. At the same time, she supported ending tougher sentences for possession of crack, used mostly by lower-income blacks, than for the powder cocaine favored by wealthy whites.
Letlow was elected to the House in a special election in March 2021 after her husband Luke won the seat, then died of COVID in December 2020.
“It’s been the honor of my life to pick up the torch and carry it,” she said during her recent stop in Baton Rouge.
Mendoza, her Republican opponent, received 236 votes in the March 2021 election, which Letlow won with 67,203 votes, or 65% of the ballots cast.
A 65-year-old organic farmer, Mendoza said he would lower food prices by creating three million new farms, which would also create new jobs.
“I see neighbors struggling to make a living … because the prices are so high,” Mendoza said, adding that he’s campaigning mostly door-to-door, which he believes is getting him more votes than the last time he ran v. Letlow.
“A lot of people are unhappy with what Julia is doing for them. It’s important that people know what I can do,” Mendoza said.
Valien, her Democratic opponent, said she is running to improve children’s education. “Getting off to a good start in education is the best defense we have to defeat poverty,” said the 42-year-old real estate broker.
He also supports eliminating the windfall elimination provision that limits Social Security benefits for state employees and said he will work to ensure that federal spending is efficient. Valien said he goes door to door and appears in parades.
With his election in 2021, Letlow relinquished his position as vice president at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She has a Ph.D. in communication from the University of South Florida.
When he ran for re-election in 2022, Letlow received 68% of the vote, winning every one of the 24 wards in the 5th Congressional District.
Letlow grew up in Monroe and lives in the rural Richland Parish community of Start with her two young children.
During her first 3 1/2 years in Congress, she represented a northeast district that stretched down through Florida parishes into southeast Louisiana. But earlier this year, the Legislature redrew the boundaries as part of a larger effort to create a second majority-black district in the state.
Letlow’s neighborhood now includes parts of Livingston and Ascension parishes, as well as Central, St. George and LSU’s East Baton Rouge campus.
On the campaign trail, Letlow expressed a desire to learn about the issues important to her new constituents in the Capitol area.
One person at the Baton Rouge event pointed out that U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves, who is retiring after the new congressional map gave him an unwinnable seat, has repeatedly supplied federal dollars for the Comite’s diversion canal and other drainage projects .
Letlow vowed to continue those efforts and sounded giddy at the prospect of representing metro Baton Rouge.
“I’m a positive person,” she said, drawing laughter. “If you need doom and gloom, you can turn on the TV.”
Unlike most freshmen in the US House of Representatives, Letlow was given a prime seat on the House Appropriations Committee, which is the first stop in deciding how the federal government will spend taxpayer dollars.
Letlow was the lead sponsor of the Parents’ Bill of Rights, a key element of the Republican Party’s 2022 platform. It passed the Republican House but did not receive a hearing in the Democratic Senate.
The bill would require schools to allow parents to review and file complaints about textbooks and curricula.
A key question facing the next Congress is whether to extend the tax cuts approved in 2017 by then-President Trump.
Trump has advocated renewing the entire tax cut, crediting it with creating jobs and generating investment. Critics say it favors the rich and big corporations and racks up billions of dollars in new debt, with many Democrats pushing to cut it.
Letlow says he “will follow Trump’s lead on this.”
Some prominent economists say that keeping the full tax cuts would increase the budget deficit. Letlow said he would have to study what independent analysts say, adding: “I don’t always agree with them.”
At 43, now likely to win her second full term in a job she never expected, Letlow said she is increasingly comfortable.
“I feel like we’re just getting started and doing some amazing things,” she said. “I don’t drink from a fire hose anymore. I feel like I have my legs under me.”