Elbert Guillory
Member of the Louisiana Senate
from the 24th district
In office
May 2009 – January 2016
Preceded byDon Cravins Jr.
Succeeded byGerald Boudreaux
Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
from the 40th district
In office
January 2007 – January 2009
Preceded byDon Cravins Jr.
Succeeded byLedricka Thierry
Personal details
Born
Elbert Lee Guillory

(1944-06-24) June 24, 1944
Opelousas, Louisiana, U.S.
Political partyRepublican (Before 2007, 2013–present)
Democratic (2007–2013)
EducationSouthern University
Norfolk State University (BS)
Rutgers University, Newark (JD)
WebsiteOfficial website
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Navy
Battles/warsVietnam War

Elbert Lee Guillory (born June 24, 1944)[1] is a former member of the Louisiana State Senate. An American Republican, he represented District 24, including his native Opelousas, and several rural precincts, from May 2, 2009, when he won a special election, until January 11, 2016, when his full term to which he was elected in 2011 ended.[2]

Guillory's Senate district was previously briefly represented by the Democrat Don Cravins, Jr. It encompasses most of St. Landry Parish and a northern part of adjacent Lafayette Parish.[3] Guillory defeated Patricia "Pat" Arceneaux Cravins (born 1947) of Arnaudville, the mother of Don Cravins, Jr., in the special state Senate runoff election held on May 2, 2009, 7,906 votes (62.5 percent) to 4,746 (37.5 percent).[4]

Guillory previously served from 2006 to 2009 as state representative for District 40. In that position he had also succeeded the Democrat Don Cravins, Jr., whose father, Don, Sr., was also a former state senator and a mayor of Opelousas.[2][5]

Background

Guillory was reared in a divorced family in St. Landry Parish.

"My parents lived seven miles from each other on the same road. They were both always part of my life, but they could never live together. They were opposites."[6]

His Roman Catholic father, Ozema Ledee (28 February 1903 - 4 January 2005),[7] was an entrepreneur and an adventurer who flew his own plane, a rarity for a black man in the 1950s. He was also a bootlegger. Guillory's mother, Frances, was a strict Baptist who forbade alcohol and cursing in her home. She worked as a teacher and school principal.[6]

Born and raised in Opelousas, a small farming community in Louisiana, Elbert L. Guillory still resides there today. His law office sits on the same land where his ancestors once toiled as slaves. He has faced adversity from a young age, including his first arrest for reading books at a “Whites Only” library. Driven by these experiences, he joined the Navy to find a sense of freedom and equality. After serving in the Navy and graduating from Norfolk University, Guillory pursued a career in civil rights law at Rutgers Law School.[8]

Party affiliation

Up until 2007, Guillory had been a registered Republican[9] and served on the Louisiana Republican state central committee.[10] He became a Democrat in 2007 when he first ran for the state House in the heavily Democratic District 40.[10][11][12] During the 2013 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature, Guillory switched his party affiliation back to Republican.[13] Officially, Guillory's party-switch occurred on May 31, when he was presented with the Frederick Douglass Award from the @Large Society.

State Senator Karen Carter Peterson, the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, had indicated racism to be the reason why the Louisiana Legislature and Governor Bobby Jindal opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010 by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Jindal and the legislature had declined to implement in Louisiana that part of the federal act expanding eligibility for Medicaid, largely with federal funding. Guillory took exception to Carter Peterson's characterization of the opponents of the law, but his intent to switch parties had already been under consideration.

Before Guillory's switch, the last Republican of African-American ethnicity in the Louisiana Senate had served during the Reconstruction era.[14] In accepting the award, Guillory compared himself to 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a Republican who had supported Abraham Lincoln.[15]

Guillory's conservative political philosophy was indicated in his pre-2007 membership in the Republican Party, according to the Daily Kos,[16] Guillory explained his 2013 party switch in a 4-minute 17-second video widely circulated in state and national media outlets, including the radio programs of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Moon Griffon as well as by Neil Cavuto on Fox News. The video was viewed on YouTube within the first three days by nearly 500,000. Filmed in the rear of the Senate chamber, the video calls the Democrats "the party of Jim Crow" and depicts "the party of freedom and progress" as the Republicans. Guillory called his switch "not only right for me, but for all of my brothers and sisters in the black community" as he left the Democrats for the Republicans.[17]

Soon after re-joining the Republican Party, Guillory founded the Free at Last PAC, a political action committee dedicated to electing black conservatives to office.

Louisiana Science Education Act

Guillory spoke in a hearing about the Louisiana Science Education Act, a law concerning religion and science in public schools. Guillory argued to keep the law on the books because of an experience he had with a witch doctor—who “wore no shoes, was semi-clothed, used a lot of bones that he threw around”.[18]

Legislative Black Caucus

Guillory remained a member of the Louisiana Legislature's Black Delegation, a caucus—a matter clarified by Legislative Black Caucus Chair State Representative Katrina Jackson, a Democrat from Monroe.[19] The Baton Rouge Advocate in an editorial asserted that Guillory's switch to the Republicans "favors the GOP's efforts to broaden its base".[20]

2015 lieutenant gubernatorial campaign

Within days of Guillory's change of parties, Jim Shannon of KLTV-TV speculated that Guillory would become a candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2015 state elections, when Jay Dardenne stepped down to run unsuccessfully against Democrat John Bel Edwards and fellow Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter for the governorship vacated by the term-limited Bobby Jindal.[21] In the runoff on November 21, 2015, Edwards won the election over David Vitter with 56.1% of the vote, becoming the first Democratic governor elected in the Deep South since the end of Kathleen Blanco's term in 2008.[22]

Guillory ran last in the October 24 four-candidate primary, having finished with 85,460 votes (7.9 percent). Holden with 360,679 votes (33.3 percent) and Nungesser, who polled 324,654 (30 percent), meet in the November 21 runoff election. John Young ran a strong third with 313,183 votes (28.9 percent).[23] In the 2015 general election Nungesser prevailed, 628,864 votes (55.38 percent) to Holden's 506,578 (44.62 percent).[24] Edwards and Nungesser, of opposite parties, assumed office on January 11, 2016.

2016 U.S. House of Representatives campaign

On January 22, 2016, Guillory announced his intention to run for Louisiana's 4th congressional district in 2016. Fellow Republican and incumbent John Fleming retired to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican David Vitter.[25] Guillory was eliminated after placing 5th in the jungle primary held on November 8, 2016, with 7% of the vote, thus not making the runoff election.

Community involvement

Guillory has served on the boards of directors for the Saint Landry Parish Chamber of Commerce, the local Salvation Army, the Saint Landry Parish Indigent Defenders, and the Opelousas Daily World newspaper. He is a Rotarian and a supporter of the American Cancer Society. Guillory is Roman Catholic like his father, being an active member of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Opelousas.[26]

Elbert Guillory is the brother-in-law of the late Jane Nora "Genore" Guillory (1958–2000), who was brutally murdered in East Feliciana Parish. Senator Guillory and his daughter, Imani Malique Guillory, were interviewed in Investigation Discovery's 2013 Southern Fried Homicide documentary on the murder. Four of Genore's neighbors were convicted in her death.[27]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Sen. Elbert Guillory (R-LA 24th District)". AAUW Louisiana. 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-06-29. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
  2. 1 2 "Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana". Archived from the original on 2015-02-10. Retrieved 2015-01-26.
  3. ↑ "District 24" (PDF). Act 24 2011 1st E.S. (Senate). 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  4. ↑ "Results for Election Date: 5/2/2009". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Membership of the Louisiana House of Representatives, 1812-2016: St. Landry Parish" (PDF). house.louisiana.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 6, 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  6. 1 2 Moore, Evan (July 1, 2013). "With switch to Republican Party, state Senator Guillory getting the unexpected". The Alexandria Town Talk. Alexandria, Louisiana. Archived from the original on July 2, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2013.
  7. ↑ https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60525&h=48257167&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=qqt64953&_phstart=successSource
  8. ↑ Top Attorneys of North America
  9. ↑ Hasten, Mike (2013-05-31). "Guillory switches back to Republican Party". The Daily Advertiser. Archived from the original on 2013-06-08. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  10. 1 2 Stubbs, Nathan (March 25, 2009). "Elbert vs. The Machine". The IND Monthly. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  11. ↑ C. Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans, was also a Republican and switched parties to run for office.
  12. ↑ McGaughy, Lauren (2013-05-13). "State Sen. Elbert Guillory, now a Republican, says Democratic Party chair remarks helped spur his switch". Times-Picayune. Archived from the original on 2013-06-08. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  13. ↑ Shuler, Marsha (2013-06-01). "State Sen. Guillory abandons Democratic Party to join GOP". Advocate. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. p. 11A. Archived from the original on 2013-09-13. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  14. ↑ "Elbert Guillory switches parties, now first black GOP state senator since Reconstruction". Nola.com. May 31, 2013. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  15. ↑ Hayward, John (2013-05-31). "Elbert Guillory, Frederick Douglass Republican". Human Events. Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  16. ↑ "Party switch creates black Republican officeholder in Louisiana. Shame about the voodoo. Updates". Daily Kos. June 4, 2013. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Guillory party switch video goes viral". News-Star. Monroe, Louisiana. June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 21, 2013. See also McCollister, Rolfe (June 25, 2013). "Guillory video goes viral". Business Report. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. p. 6. Archived from the original on July 4, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2013.
  18. ↑ Kopplin, Zack (2013-06-04). "Louisiana's latest anti-scientific folly, on video". Slate. Archived from the original on 2013-06-18. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  19. ↑ Capital News Bureau (2013-06-02). "Guillory still holds caucus membership". Advocate. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. pp. 1B, 3B. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  20. ↑ "New switch favors GOP". Advocate. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 2013-06-04. p. 6B. Archived from the original on 2013-09-25. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  21. ↑ Shannon, Jim (2013-06-06). "Surprise candidates emerge for office of Lt. Governor in 2015". KLTV Channel 7. Tyler, Texas. Archived from the original on 2015-01-09. Retrieved 2013-06-07. KLTV broadcasts from east Texas, but its coverage area includes part of west Louisiana.
  22. ↑ "John Bel Edwards beats David Vitter to become Louisiana's next governor". The Times-Picayune. November 21, 2015. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Results for Election Date: 10/24/2015". Louisiana Secretary of State. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Results for Election Date: 11/21/2015". Louisiana Secretary of State. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Elbert Guillory announces bid for Congressional Seat". KATC.com. January 22, 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  26. ↑ Senate Office of Communication (2009-05-18). "Elbert Guillory officially seated as District 24 state senator" (PDF). Senator's News Release. Retrieved 2013-06-01.
  27. ↑ For facts of the murder see Hustmyre, Chuck (2013-07-31). "The brutal murder of Genore Guillory". Crime library: Criminal minds & methods. Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. Retrieved 2013-07-31. Convicted in 2005 were Phillip Skipper, Johnny Hoyt, Lisa Skipper Hoyt, and John Baillio.
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