woody jenkins

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</div><div>louis Elwood Jenkins Jr., known as Woody Jenkins (born January 3, 1947), is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper" title="Newspaper">newspaper</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing" title="Editing">editor</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_Rouge,Louisiana" title="Baton Rouge, Louisiana">Baton Rouge</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_City,Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="Central City, Louisiana">Central City</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana" title="Louisiana">Louisiana</a>, who served as a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Legislature" title="Louisiana State Legislature">Louisiana House of Representatives</a> from 1972 to 2000 and waged three unsuccessful races for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate">United States Senate</a> in 1978, 1980, and 1996.

<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" dir="ltr" lang="en"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" /></div>

<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Background">1 Background</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Legislative_career">2 Legislative career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#State_constitutional_convention">3 State constitutional convention</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Other_political_ventures">4 Other political ventures</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#1996_Senate_campaign_and_aftermath">5 1996 Senate campaign and aftermath</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#1999_campaign_for_elections_commissioner">6 1999 campaign for elections commissioner</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#U.S.House_special_election,2008">7 U.S. House special election, 2008</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Later_developments">8 Later developments</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Electoral_history">9 Electoral history</a>

<ul><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#1996_US_Senate_election_in_Louisiana">9.1 1996 US Senate election in Louisiana</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#Louisiana's_6th_congressional_district_special_election,_2008">9.2 Louisiana's 6th congressional district special election, 2008</a></li></ul>

</li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#See_also">10 See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#References">11 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#External_links">12 External links</a></li></ul>

</div>

<h2>Background</h2><table class="box-Story plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-style" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div style="width:52px"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/40px-Edit-clear.svg.png" data-file-width="48" data-file-height="48" width="40" height="40" /></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This article reads more like a story than an encyclopedia entry. To meet Wikipedia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_style_guidelines" title="Category:Wikipedia style guidelines">quality standards</a> and conform to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:NPOV">neutral point of view</a> policy, please help to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Encyclopedic_style" class="mw-redirect" title="Wikipedia:Encyclopedic style">introduce a more formal style</a> and remove any personally invested tone. (February 2021)</div></td></tr></tbody></table>

Jenkins was born in the capital city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_Rouge" class="mw-redirect" title="Baton Rouge">Baton Rouge</a> to the late Louis E. "Ory" Jenkins, Sr., and the former Doris Laverne Rowlett (1922–2013), a native of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston,Texas" class="mw-redirect" title="Houston, Texas">Houston</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas">Texas</a>, who was reared[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Tone" title="Wikipedia:Writing better articles">tone</a>] in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shreveport,Louisiana" title="Shreveport, Louisiana">Shreveport</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin,Texas" title="Alvin, Texas">Alvin</a>, Texas.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Early in their married life, his parents operated a restaurant, Little Ory's Den in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponchatoula,Louisiana" title="Ponchatoula, Louisiana">Ponchatoula</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangipahoa_Parish" class="mw-redirect" title="Tangipahoa Parish">Tangipahoa Parish</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Later Ory Jenkins was employed as an operator by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_Corporation" title="Ethyl Corporation">Ethyl Corporation</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Doris Jenkins worked in safety deposit at the American Bank on the

Plank Road in Baton Rouge, a position from which she retired in 1982

after twenty-five years.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-1">[1]</a>

He attended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrouma_High_School" title="Istrouma High School">Istrouma High School</a>, where he served as student body president and was his 1965 class <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valedictorian" title="Valedictorian">valedictorian</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] While in high school, he worked as a radio newsman at WLCS and in college as an announcer at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAFB-TV" class="mw-redirect" title="WAFB-TV">WAFB-TV</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS" title="CBS">CBS</a> affiliate in Baton Rouge. While at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_University" title="Louisiana State University">Louisiana State University</a> School of Journalism, he became the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_(politics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Conservative (politics)">conservative</a> columnist for the LSU student newspaper, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Reveille" title="The Daily Reveille">The Daily Reveille</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

At age nineteen, while still in journalism school, Jenkins and his future wife, the former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_A._Jenkins" title="Diane A. Jenkins">Diane Aker</a>, who is a few days older than Jenkins, started a community weekly newspaper, the North Baton Rouge Journal, which was honored by the Louisiana Press Association for editorial writing. Jenkins received a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Arts" title="Bachelor of Arts">Bachelor of Arts</a> in journalism from LSU in 1969 and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor">Juris Doctor</a> degree from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_University_Law_Center" class="mw-redirect" title="Louisiana State University Law Center">Louisiana State University Law Center</a>, where he was a member in 1972 of the Law Review.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins owned an advertising agency from 1972 to 1981, when he became executive director of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy" title="Council for National Policy">Council for National Policy</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] From 1985 to 2005, he was president and general manager of WBTR-TV in Baton Rouge.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Since 2005, he has served as editor of the Central City News, a community weekly newspaper.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] At WBTR-TV, he produced a daily television news program from 1991 to 2005, Baton Rouge Today, which won first place as the Best Community News Program in the nation from the Community Broadcasters Association.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] The Central City News has won more than twenty national and state awards from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Newspaper_Association" title="National Newspaper Association">National Newspaper Association</a>

and the Louisiana Press Association, including General Excellence, Best

Feature Writing, Best Columnist, and Best Local News Coverage. Jenkins

is an inductee of the LSU Journalism School Hall of Fame.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>Legislative career</h2>Jenkins had been a Young <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)">Republican</a> in high school. At seventeen, he was a page for State Representatives <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morley_A.Hudson&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Morley A. Hudson (page does not exist)">Morley A. Hudson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taylor_W.O%27Hearn&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Taylor W. O'Hearn (page does not exist)">Taylor W. O'Hearn</a>, the first Republicans elected to the Louisiana House since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_in_the_United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Reconstruction era in the United States">Reconstruction</a>. However, in 1971, he switched to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party(United_States)" title="Democratic Party (United States)">Democratic Party</a>

to run for a Baton Rouge-area seat in the state House. Even though

Louisiana was becoming increasingly friendly to Republicans nationally,

Democrats still fully dominated at the state level. At the time of

Jenkins' election only two members of both houses of the legislature

were Republicans.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins faced five older opponents in his first race but walked

door to door and was elected with 67 percent in the Democratic primary

and was unopposed in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_election" title="General election">general election</a>. (Louisiana's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpartisan_blanket_primary" title="Nonpartisan blanket primary">nonpartisan blanket primary</a>

was not enacted until 1975.) He was sworn in at the age of twenty-four,

just a few days before he graduated from LSU Law School.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

During his 28-year tenure in the Louisiana House from 1972 to

2000, Jenkins authored more than three hundred major bills that became

law, including the Free Enterprise Education Act, which requires all

high school students in Louisiana to complete a one-semester course on

the free enterprise system;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] the Private Education Deregulation Act, which removed many regulations from private and Christian schools and legalized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_schooling" class="mw-redirect" title="Home schooling">home schooling</a> in the state.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

The Teacher Proficiency Act requires all new public school teachers in

Louisiana to pass the National Teachers Examination; the TOPS

scholarship program, under which more than 100,000 Louisiana students

have been granted full college scholarships. Jenkins also sponsored the

Concealed Carry Act and the Shoot the Burglar Act.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

While in the legislature, Jenkins organized and served as

chairman of the Conservative Caucus in the state house, which had begun

with only four members in 1972.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] By 1980, a caucus member, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hainkel" class="mw-redirect" title="John Hainkel">John Hainkel</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans,_Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="New Orleans, Louisiana">New Orleans</a>, was elected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_Louisiana_House_of_Representatives" class="mw-redirect" title="Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives">House Speaker</a>. Jenkins served as chairman of the House Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations. Jenkins personally[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">according to whom?</a>] favored <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work" class="mw-redirect" title="Right-to-work">right-to-work</a> legislation, but voted against a 1976 right-to-work bill signed into law by Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards" title="Edwin Edwards">Edwin Edwards</a> due to the large number of union workers who lived in his House district.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In 1990, Jenkins helped to secure the override in the Louisiana House of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="Governor of Louisiana">Governor</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Roemer" title="Buddy Roemer">Buddy Roemer</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veto" title="Veto">veto</a> of a ban on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion">abortion</a>, including cases of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape" title="Rape">rape</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest" title="Incest">incest</a>

and fines of up to $100,000 and ten years imprisonment on the

practitioners. The legislation was authored by Democratic State Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mike_Cross(Louisiana_politician)&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Mike Cross (Louisiana politician) (page does not exist)">Mike Cross</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker,Louisiana" title="Baker, Louisiana">Baker</a>. Roemer declared the legislation incompatible with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court" class="mw-redirect" title="United States Supreme Court">United States Supreme Court</a> decision <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade" title="Roe v. Wade">Roe v. Wade</a>. His veto<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-2">[2]</a> alienated large numbers of his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_conservative" class="mw-redirect" title="Social conservative">socially conservative</a>

electoral base. Though the House overrode the veto, the state Senate

failed to do so. Jenkins argued that the prohibition regarding rape and

incest is needed to prevent women from filing false claims in such

matters. State Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sydney_B._Nelson&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sydney B. Nelson (page does not exist)">Sydney B. Nelson</a>

of Shreveport, however, announced his opposition to the abortion ban

championed by Cross and Jenkins because of the problems of unwanted

children and defective births.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-3">[3]</a> Nevertheless, in 1991, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Judge" class="mw-redirect" title="United States District Judge">United States District Judge</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_G._Duplantier" title="Adrian G. Duplantier">Adrian G. Duplantier</a> of New Orleans, a former state senator, ruled that the measure was in conflict with Roe v. Wade.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-4">[4]</a>

<h2>State constitutional convention</h2>Jenkins

was elected as a delegate to Louisiana's state constitutional

convention, which met from late 1972 to early 1974. His colleagues

included fellow Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.Harmon_Drew,Sr." class="mw-redirect" title="R. Harmon Drew, Sr.">R. Harmon Drew, Sr.</a>, future <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Louisiana" class="mw-redirect" title="Governor of Louisiana">Governor</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Roemer" title="Buddy Roemer">Buddy Roemer</a> and later Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_H._%22Jim%22_Brown&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="James H. " jim="Jim" brown="Brown" page="page" does="does" not="not" exist="exist">James H. "Jim" Brown</a>.

He served on the convention's Committee on Bill of Rights and

Elections, and he authored much of the new constitution's Declaration of

Rights. The proposed constitution was approved by the delegates and

ratified by the voters in a statewide election held in April 1974.

Formally adopted in 1975, the document is still in effect.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-5">[5]</a>

<h2>Other political ventures</h2>When Republicans failed to field candidates for the United States Senate in 1978 against the incumbent Democrat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.Bennett_Johnston_Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="J. Bennett Johnston Jr.">J. Bennett Johnston Jr.</a>, and again in 1980 against <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_B.Long" title="Russell B. Long">Russell B. Long</a>, Jenkins opposed both incumbents, himself running as a Democrat.

In a campaign appearance in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minden,Louisiana" title="Minden, Louisiana">Minden</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster_Parish,Louisiana" title="Webster Parish, Louisiana">Webster Parish</a>, Jenkins vowed to secure funds for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Army_Ammunition_Plant" title="Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant">Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant</a>, since closed, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barksdale_Air_Force_Base" title="Barksdale Air Force Base">Barksdale Air Force Base</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bossier_City,Louisiana" title="Bossier City, Louisiana">Bossier City</a>. He claimed that Johnston had voted "too closely" with proposals advanced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.President" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. President">U.S. President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter">Jimmy Carter</a>. He questioned why Johnston had voted to divert intrastate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas" title="Natural gas">natural gas</a> from Louisiana industries to residential areas in such states as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(state)" title="New York (state)">New York</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio" title="Ohio">Ohio</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-6">[6]</a>

Jenkins won twenty-eight of the sixty-four parishes, but Johnston

prevailed, 58–42 percent. In the 1980 race, Jenkins criticized Long's

support of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Treaties" class="mw-redirect" title="Panama Canal Treaties">Panama Canal Treaties</a>.

He said Long was "the most powerful man in the Senate, but he isn't

using that power for us." Again, Jenkins lost, 59–41 percent. In both

races, he was outspent by large margins, 5 to 1 in the Johnston race and

10 to 1 in the Long race. In the second of those campaigns, Republican

Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dole" title="Bob Dole">Bob Dole</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas" title="Kansas">Kansas</a>,

later his party's Majority Leader and presidential nominee, made a

campaign commercial for his friend Russell Long. Coincidentally, Dole

took over chairmanship of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_Finance" title="United States Senate Committee on Finance">Senate Finance Committee</a> from Long after the Republicans won a majority in the 1980 elections.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In 1972, Jenkins made an effort to promote the influence of conservative Democrats. He endorsed conservative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Los_Angeles" title="Mayor of Los Angeles">Mayor</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Yorty" title="Sam Yorty">Sam Yorty</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles,California" class="mw-redirect" title="Los Angeles, California">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California" title="California">California</a>, for the party's presidential nomination, but the choice fell upon U.S. Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S.McGovern" class="mw-redirect" title="George S. McGovern">George S. McGovern</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota" title="South Dakota">South Dakota</a>.

In 1976, he was elected as Louisiana's member of the Democratic

National Platform Committee where he offered numerous conservative

proposals during the meetings in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C." title="Washington, D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a> He was the only member of the committee to vote against the final version of the platform.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In 1976, Jenkins and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Richey&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dan Richey (page does not exist)">Dan Richey</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferriday,Louisiana" title="Ferriday, Louisiana">Ferriday</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordia_Parish,Louisiana" title="Concordia Parish, Louisiana">Concordia Parish</a>

were the only House members to oppose the state appropriations bill,

which passed 88-2. Richey stumped for Jenkins during his 1978 and 1980

U.S. Senate election runs, and Jenkins returned the favor by campaigning

for Richey's election to the state Senate in 1979.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-7">[7]</a>

In early 1980, Jenkins was elected <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Democratic_Party" title="Louisiana Democratic Party">Democratic National Committeeman</a> from Louisiana over the opposition of then outgoing Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Edwards" title="Edwin Edwards">Edwin Edwards</a>, but Jenkins resigned that position in October 1980 to campaign for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_W._Reagan" class="mw-redirect" title="Ronald W. Reagan">Ronald W. Reagan</a> for president, while Edwards stood with President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter" title="Jimmy Carter">Jimmy Carter</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In 1981, Jenkins and later U.S. Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_C.Holloway" title="Clyde C. Holloway">Clyde C. Holloway</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapides_Parish,Louisiana" title="Rapides Parish, Louisiana">Rapides Parish</a>, one of the four parishes that Jenkins had carried in his 1980 Senate race against Russell Long, spoke at a rally in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria,_Louisiana" title="Alexandria, Louisiana">Alexandria</a>. There the two endorsed proposed constitutional amendments to halt forced busing for the purpose of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segregation_in_the_United_States" class="mw-redirect" title="Segregation in the United States">desegregating</a>

public schools and to require the election, instead of presidential

appointment and U.S. Senate confirmation, of U.S. judges. Jenkins told

the rally:

What we need in America is a constitutional amendment against forced

busing, and any American who says he is against busing and won't support

a constitutional amendment is a liar.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-8">[8]</a></blockquote>

In 1989, Jenkins joined a coalition of mostly supporters of Edwin

Edwards to defeat a tax reform referendum designed by the Roemer

administration to reduce <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax" title="Sales tax">sales taxes</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_income_tax" title="State income tax">state income taxes</a> while raising <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_tax" title="Property tax">property taxes</a>. The successful opponents to the reform measure also included newly elected State Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke" title="David Duke">David Duke</a>, former and later Speaker <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alario" title="John Alario">John Alario</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victor_Bussie&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Victor Bussie (page does not exist)">Victor Bussie</a>, long-term president of the Louisiana <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL-CIO" class="mw-redirect" title="AFL-CIO">AFL-CIO</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-9">[9]</a>

In 1994, after twenty-two years as a Democrat, Jenkins held a news conference with U.S. Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm" title="Phil Gramm">Phil Gramm</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas">Texas</a>,

a Democrat-turned-Republican, to announce his decision to change his

party affiliation to Republican. Jenkins said that he felt conservatives

no longer had any hope of influencing the direction of the Democratic

Party.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>1996 Senate campaign and aftermath</h2><table class="box-More_citations_needed_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div style="width:52px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" width="50" height="39" /></a></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section needs additional citations for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a>. Please help <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woody_Jenkins&action=edit">improve this article</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2021) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this template message</a>)</div></td></tr></tbody></table>

In 1996, Jenkins ran for the Senate seat being vacated by the

retirement of Bennett Johnston. Although five other Republicans ran

against him in the nonpartisan blanket primary, Jenkins was endorsed as

the party's "official" candidate at the Republican state convention. He

also faced four Democrats and five independents. The field included

Attorney General <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ieyoub" title="Richard Ieyoub">Richard Ieyoub</a>, former Democratic state Treasurer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Landrieu" title="Mary Landrieu">Mary Landrieu</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans" title="New Orleans">New Orleans</a>, Congressman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hayes" title="Jimmy Hayes">Jimmy Hayes</a> (a recent convert to the GOP), former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan" title="Ku Klux Klan">Ku Klux Klansman</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Duke" title="David Duke">David Duke</a>, and two wealthy businessmen, state Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chuck_McMains&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Chuck McMains (page does not exist)">Chuck McMains</a> of Baton Rouge and William "Bill" Linder of New Orleans, the brother of Republican U.S. Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Linder" title="John Linder">John Linder</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia(U.S.state)" title="Georgia (U.S. state)">Georgia</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

U.S. Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Livingston" title="Bob Livingston">Bob Livingston</a> of New Orleans led the party as it rallied behind Jenkins. Support also came from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_J._Steimel&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Edward J. Steimel (page does not exist)">Edward J. Steimel</a>, former executive director of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisiana_Association_of_Business_and_Industry&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (page does not exist)">Louisiana Association of Business and Industry</a>.

Jenkins ran first in the primary with 27 percent of the vote. He and

Landrieu then competed in the November general election. Former

President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush" title="George H. W. Bush">George H. W. Bush</a>

came to campaign on Jenkins' behalf. He defended Jenkins against

Democrat charges that Jenkins had personally benefited with rent and

salaries from a charity which Jenkins headed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-10">[10]</a> Other party figures supporting Jenkins were Senators <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain" title="John McCain">John McCain</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona" title="Arizona">Arizona</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_G.Hatch" class="mw-redirect" title="Orrin G. Hatch">Orrin G. Hatch</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah" title="Utah">Utah</a>, Majority Leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Lott" title="Trent Lott">Trent Lott</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi" title="Mississippi">Mississippi</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Mack_III" title="Connie Mack III">Connie Mack, III</a>, of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida" title="Florida">Florida</a>. Governor Foster and former Governors <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C.Treen" class="mw-redirect" title="David C. Treen">David C. Treen</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Roemer" title="Buddy Roemer">Buddy Roemer</a>, and the Democrat former Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Davis" title="Jimmie Davis">Jimmie Davis</a> all endorsed Jenkins too.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

On <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_Day_(United_States)" title="Election Day (United States)">Election Day</a>,

television network exit polls showed Jenkins leading, 51–49 percent.

Jenkins' lead held up throughout the evening, but a late surge of votes

from heavily Democratic New Orleans, as well as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton" title="Bill Clinton">Bill Clinton</a>'s strong performance in the state, put Landrieu ahead by 5,788 votes out of 1.7 million cast.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

It was the closest U.S. Senate race in the presidential election

year of 1996, and one of the closest in Louisiana history. Jenkins

carried thirty-eight parishes and exclusive of Orleans parish, he

secured 53 percent of the vote. New Orleans gave Landrieu a 100,000 vote

margin. The final returns showed Landrieu with 852,945 votes and

Jenkins with 847,157 votes.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins led Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole by more than

134,000 votes statewide. Jenkins' vote total, as of 2004, was the third

highest by a Republican running in a statewide race in Louisiana,

topped since only by former Governor Foster and former U.S. Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vitter" title="David Vitter">David Vitter</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

After losing this election, Jenkins contested the results.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-11">[11]</a>

He claimed that at least 7,454 "phantom votes" were cast in 4,000

precincts in the state in 1996. The so-called phantom votes were alleged

to have occurred when more votes were cast on the voting machines than

voters who signed up to vote in that precinct on election day. Jenkins

also claimed that more than thirty thousand signatures of voters on

election day did not match their signatures on voter registration cards.

Claims were also made that individuals were hauled multiple times to

various <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_precinct" title="Electoral precinct">precincts</a> in New Orleans to cast votes without being required to sign the register. The Jenkins forces[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">who?</a>] alleged that buses drove through the inner city and offered payments to anyone who would vote. Moreover, they[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">who?</a>]

claimed that further investigations proved that about 1,300 votes were

cast by voters whose registered addresses were abandoned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing" title="Public housing">public housing</a> units.

Jenkins took his case to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate,

claiming that Landrieu's 5,788-vote margin was made possible only by

fraudulent votes in New Orleans. In a hearing before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_Rules_and_Administration" title="United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration">Senate Rules Committee</a> carried live on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPAN" title="C-SPAN">C-SPAN</a>,

Jenkins charged massive election fraud. He petitioned the Senate to

unseat Landrieu and to order a new election – and on an 8–7 party-line

vote the committee agreed to set up a probe.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Only a month into the probe, however, Democrats[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">who?</a>] claimed that Thomas "Papa Bear" Miller, a detective hired by Jenkins' campaign to investigate claims of fraud, had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credible_witness" class="mw-redirect" title="Credible witness">coached</a>

witnesses to claim they had participated in election fraud. The Jenkins

campaign denied the charge and declared it to be a Democratic attempt

to distract attention from the massive vote-buying and election fraud

they said had occurred in the election. Miller had several felony

convictions on his record, including a guilty plea to attempted murder.

Miller was killed in a drive- by shooting in May 2003.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-12">[12]</a> The Democrats walked out of the probe in protest, but the deliberations continued.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-13">[13]</a>

In October 1997, after a ten-month investigation, the committee

allowed Landrieu's victory to stand. It concluded that while there were

numerous irregularities, it was impossible to determine if they were

egregious enough to change the outcome.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In 2004, Jenkins and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dan_Richey&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dan Richey (page does not exist)">Dan Richey</a>, his long-term friend and former legislative colleague,[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

helped to organize David Vitter's grassroots campaign, when Vitter,

then a member of the U.S. House, became the first Republican elected

from Louisiana to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>1999 campaign for elections commissioner</h2><table class="box-More_citations_needed_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div style="width:52px"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" width="50" height="39" /></a></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section needs additional citations for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">verification</a>. Please help <a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woody_Jenkins&action=edit">improve this article</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2021) (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this template message</a>)</div></td></tr></tbody></table>

In 1999, Jenkins ran for Commissioner of Elections against incumbent Democrat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jerry_Fowler&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Jerry Fowler (page does not exist)">Jerry Fowler</a>,

whom Jenkins had alleged was part of the election fraud in 1996.

Jenkins pledged to clean up elections in Louisiana and create a Voter

Fraud Unit. In the primary, Jenkins ran first and fellow Republican <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Haik_Terrell" title="Suzanne Haik Terrell">Suzanne Haik Terrell</a> finished in second place. Fowler ran third and was eliminated.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In the run-off between Jenkins and Terrell, the first statewide

run-off between two Republicans in the history of Louisiana's open

elections system, Terrell won handily. She took office and made many

changes, including creation of a Voter Fraud Unit, which successfully

prosecuted numerous cases of voter fraud[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>].

In January 2000, Jenkins retired from the Louisiana House after

twenty-eight years in office. In 2002, Suzanne Terrell was a Republican

candidate for the U.S. Senate, matched against Landrieu, in a race that

also included U.S. Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cooksey" title="John Cooksey">John Cooksey</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe,Louisiana" title="Monroe, Louisiana">Monroe</a> and State Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Perkins(politician)" title="Tony Perkins (politician)">Tony Perkins</a>

of Baton Rouge, Jenkins' 1996 campaign manager in the Senate race

against Landrieu. Jenkins endorsed Perkins in the primary. In the runoff

between Terrell and Landrieu, Jenkins endorsed Terrell, but Landrieu

was elected to her second term.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>U.S. House special election, 2008</h2><table class="box-Weasel plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Weasel" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div style="width:52px"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg/40px-Ambox_important.svg.png" data-file-width="40" data-file-height="40" width="40" height="40" /></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This article contains <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">weasel words</a>: vague phrasing that often accompanies <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view" title="Wikipedia:Neutral point of view">biased</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">unverifiable</a> information. Such statements should be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Improving_weasel-worded_statements" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">clarified or removed</a>. (February 2021)</div></td></tr></tbody></table>

On January 16, 2008, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Representative" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Representative">U.S. Representative</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Baker(U.S._politician)" class="mw-redirect" title="Richard Baker (U.S. politician)">Richard Hugh Baker</a>, representing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana%27s_6th_congressional_district" title="Louisiana's 6th congressional district">Louisiana's 6th congressional district</a>,

announced that he would soon resign from Congress. The political

careers of Jenkins and Baker actually began on the same day thirty-four

years earlier in 1972, when both were freshman Democratic members of the

East Baton Rouge Parish state House delegation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-14">[14]</a>

Baker vacated his congressional seat on February 2. As a result, Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal" title="Bobby Jindal">Bobby Jindal</a> called a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana%27s_6th_congressional_district_special_election,_2008" class="mw-redirect" title="Louisiana's 6th congressional district special election, 2008">special election</a> to fill the vacancy. The Republican and Democratic primaries, again <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_primary" class="mw-redirect" title="Closed primary">closed primaries</a>,

were held on March 8 in conjunction with the presidential primaries,

with the runoff, if needed, set for April 5, and the general election on

May 3.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

On January 17, 2008, Jenkins announced his candidacy<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-15">[15]</a> for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party(United_States)" title="Republican Party (United States)">GOP</a> nomination in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana%27s_6th_congressional_district_special_election,2008" class="mw-redirect" title="Louisiana's 6th congressional district special election, 2008">special election</a>. Jenkins received the endorsements of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Toomey" title="Pat Toomey">Pat Toomey</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_for_Growth" title="Club for Growth">Club for Growth</a> Political Action Committee,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-16">[16]</a> and Dr. James Dobson,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-17">[17]</a> founder of Focus on the Family. He also received the endorsement of the East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-18">[18]</a> Jenkins later received the endorsement of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rifle_Association" title="National Rifle Association">National Rifle Association</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-19">[19]</a>

In the primary, he faced Paul Sawyer, Baker's congressional aide,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-Advicate-20">[20]</a> Laurinda L. Calongne, president of Robert Rose Consulting;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-BR_Business_Report-21">[21]</a> and Michael Cloonan, a veteran of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy" title="United States Navy">United States Navy</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Feliciana_Parish" class="mw-redirect" title="East Feliciana Parish">East Feliciana Parish</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-nola-22">[22]</a>

Jenkins led in public opinion polls prior to the primary but fell

eighty-four votes short of an outright majority to win the GOP

nomination. Calongne, with 7,584 ballots (25 percent), finished second

and forced Jenkins, with 14,849 votes (just under 50 percent), into a

runoff. Sawyer trailed with 6,924 (23 percent). Cloonan held the

critical balance of 425 votes (1 percent).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-23">[23]</a>

In the April 5 Republican runoff against Calongne, Jenkins won

handily, taking 15,179 (62 percent) of the vote to Calongne's 9,327 (38

percent) votes.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-Runoff-24">[24]</a> He faced Democratic State Representative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cazayoux" title="Don Cazayoux">Don Cazayoux</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Roads,_Louisiana" title="New Roads, Louisiana">New Roads</a> in the special election. Jenkins was immediately endorsed by Governor Jindal.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-25">[25]</a>

In Congress, Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vitter" title="David Vitter">David Vitter</a> and the three Republicans in Louisiana's House delegation – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McCrery" title="Jim McCrery">Jim McCrery</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Alexander" title="Rodney Alexander">Rodney Alexander</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boustany" title="Charles Boustany">Charles Boustany</a> endorsed Jenkins.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-26">[26]</a> Jenkins was also supported by House Minority Leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boehner" title="John Boehner">John Boehner</a>, Minority Whip <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Blunt" title="Roy Blunt">Roy Blunt</a>, and Assistant Whip <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cantor" title="Eric Cantor">Eric Cantor</a>. On April 25, former U.S. Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Breaux" title="John Breaux">John Breaux</a>, now a resident of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland" title="Maryland">Maryland</a>,

endorsed Cazayoux on grounds that the self-styled "John Breaux

Democrat" could work across party lines. In 1996, Breaux had also

opposed Jenkins in the race against Mary Landrieu.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-27">[27]</a>

Despite support from the state Republican establishment, some Republicans were cool[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">according to whom?</a>] toward Jenkins.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Tone" title="Wikipedia:Writing better articles">tone</a>] Some[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">who?</a>]

considered him a second-tier candidate despite his long tenure in the

state legislature, his near-victory in the Senate race a decade earlier,

and support among social conservatives[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch">who?</a>] in the Louisiana GOP.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Republican_Congressional_Committee" title="National Republican Congressional Committee">National Republican Congressional Committee</a>,

the campaign arm of House Republicans, reportedly tied his financial

aid to meeting certain financial benchmarks, an unusual obstacle

considering that the GOP had held this seat since 1975.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Additionally, Jenkins faced potential problems from a past indirect connection to David Duke.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Before the 1996 Senate general election, Jenkins' campaign retained a

firm to do automated phone calls to voters. The firm had previously done

work for Duke. He was fined $3,000 by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Election_Commission" title="Federal Election Commission">Federal Election Commission</a> because the purchase was paid for by his ad agency instead of directly by the campaign.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-28">[28]</a>

Later Jenkins learned that Duke received a commission from the firm he

had hired, but Jenkins insisted that he had no knowledge that Duke would

profit from the transaction.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-29">[29]</a> However, his signed agreement with the FEC admitted that he knew Duke had used the same firm.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jenkins#cite_note-30">[30]</a>

Cazayoux won the special election on May 3, 2008, with 49,702

votes (49 percent) to Jenkins' 46,741 votes (46 percent). An independent

Republican candidate and two minor candidates held the remaining 5

percent of the vote. Jenkins ran best in the City of Central, where he

received 77 percent of the votes cast, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livingston_Parish,_Louisiana" title="Livingston Parish, Louisiana">Livingston Parish</a>,

a heavily Republican suburban parish near Baton Rouge, where he

received 72 percent. However, Cazayoux won by almost 5,000 votes in

Jenkins' own East Baton Rouge Parish.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins was expected to seek a rematch against Cazayoux in the

election for the full term in Congress in the fall of 2008 but announced

instead that he would support Republican state Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cassidy" title="Bill Cassidy">Bill Cassidy</a>, who unseated Cazayoux and held the seat until 2014, when he defeated incumbent Mary Landrieu for the US Senate.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>Later developments</h2><table class="box-More_citations_needed_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image">
</td><td class="mbox-text">
</td></tr></tbody></table>

In private life, Jenkins has been active in efforts to assist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee" title="Refugee">refugees</a> and poor people in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America" title="Latin America">Latin America</a>. Jenkins has visited Latin America more than sixty times.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins served as CEO for WBTR-TV in Baton Rouge from 1987 to 2004.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] He was named to the LSU School of Journalism Hall of Fame in 1991;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] "Legislator of the Year" by the National Taxpayers Union, 1977,[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schlafly" title="Phyllis Schlafly">Phyllis Schlafly</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Forum" title="Eagle Forum">Eagle Forum</a>, 1990;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] 96 percent rating, Louisiana Association of Business and Industry;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] recipient, Winston Churchill Award, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy" title="Council for National Policy">Council for National Policy</a>, 1990;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] producer, Baton Rouge Today, named "Outstanding Local News Program in the U.S." by Community Broadcasters Association, 1992;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] named "Louisiana's Pro-Family, Pro-Life Champion" by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Coalition_of_America" title="Christian Coalition of America">Christian Coalition</a> of Louisiana for his service in the legislature;[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] listed in Who's Who in America; B.A., Journalism, Juris Doctor, LSU.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Jenkins and Daniel Duggan started a community weekly newspaper called the Central City News in 2005.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] In 2006, they started the Zachary Post.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] In 2007, Duggan's company acquired the South Baton Rouge Journal.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Jenkins served as editor of all three papers.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] In 2008, Duggan and Jenkins dissolved their partnership, with Duggan assuming ownership of the Zachary Post and Jenkins ownership of the Central City News.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] The South Baton Rouge Journal suspended publication.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] In 2012, Jenkins resumed the South Baton Rouge Journal under a new name, the Capital City News.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] In 2010, the Louisiana Press Association awarded the Central City News first place in the state for General Excellence and in 2011, the LPA awarded Jenkins its Freedom of Information Award.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

On May 18, 2008, Jenkins was elected as Louisiana's

representative on the Platform Committee at the Republican National

Convention, which met in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis,_Minnesota" class="mw-redirect" title="Minneapolis, Minnesota">Minneapolis, Minnesota</a>. In 2012, he elected to a four-year term as Republican chairman for East Baton Rouge Parish.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In May 2012, small business owners in Baton Rouge formed the new Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] The group is an affiliate of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chamber_of_Commerce" title="United States Chamber of Commerce">United States Chamber of Commerce</a>. Jenkins was elected chairman of the group.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

In the Spring of 2020, Jenkins became a leading supporter of

Pastor Tony Spell and Life Tabernacle Church in that church’s civil

disobedience against Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bel_Edwards" title="John Bel Edwards">John Bel Edwards</a>’ “Stay at Home” order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>] Jenkins’ Central City News and St. George Leader began live-streaming services from Life Tabernacle Church in March 2020.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>Electoral history</h2></div><div>===</div><div><a href="http://">https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/30/membership-list-powerful-secretive-christian-right-america/</a></div><div>
</div><div><h4>donald Trump previewed his RNC acceptance address before the

influential Council for National Policy. The membership list of this

Christian Right cabal was a carefully guarded secret – until now.</h4>

President Donald Trump’s appearance in Arlington, Virginia on August 21 before the <a href="https://cfnp.org/">Council for National Policy</a>

(CNP), a hyper-secretive Christian Right powerhouse that helps set the

movement’s agenda, offered an hour-long preview of the stem-winding

speech he would deliver several nights later on a balcony in front of

the White House to the Republican National Convention.

Joined by his acting and still-unconfirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhsgov/50263595776">Chad Wolf</a>,

the longtime corporate lobbyist who guided federal troops against

anti-racism protesters, the president proclaimed, “China very much wants

Joe Biden to win.”

Next, Trump inspired gales of applause by boasting, “I could run in

Israel, and I think they set up probably a 98 percent approval rating in

Israel… And you know who appreciates it the most are the evangelical

Christians.”

The president earned more cheers when he previewed a line he deployed

a few nights later at the RNC: “Nobody has done more for the black

community or the Hispanic community than we have. Nobody. Nobody. I

guess, maybe Lincoln. Questionable.”

Trump’s recent event with the CNP was his second appearance before the group. The first encounter came during an <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/donald-trump-woos-social-conservative-leaders/">October 2015 CNP forum</a>,

as candidate Trump was surging ahead of his Republican primary rivals

and emerging as the Christian Right’s foul-mouthed Chosen One.

Several CNP members went on to serve in Trump’s White House,

including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. But this appearance was

different.

This time, in contrast to other Republican presidential hopefuls who

had addressed the CNP, the White House videotaped Trump’s speech and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZCGpI_-GMo">proudly disseminated it</a> online. Conspicuously missing from the footage, however, were any clear images of the audibly enthused crowd.

That is because the CNP’s membership is a carefully guarded secret;

its meetings are private – off limits to the public and the press – and

even the location of the gatherings is carefully protected.

Literature distributed to members at the entrance of meetings

instructed attendees not to disclose the names of fellow members and

forbade them from distributing the membership list to outsiders in order

“to maintain the quality of membership communications.”

The Grayzone obtained the Council for National Policy’s <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/474142983/Council-for-National-Policy-member-list">October 2018 membership list</a>

and has published it in full at the end of this article. Pages 1-72

show the names and bios of members; 72-87 contain CNP literature,

including official policies and guidelines, as well as details about

future meetings.

The release of the CNP’s membership list represents the first time in

the Trump era that the Christian Right powerhouse has been exposed, and

the most recent disclosure since a copy of its <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/05/17/council-national-policy-behind-curtain">2014 member roll</a> was published.

The CNP’s personnel comprise a blend of conservative movement

leaders, industry moneymen, foreign policy hardliners, and culture war

activists enforcing right-wing unity at the base of a Republican Party

that has cohered around the doctrine of ultra-nationalist Trumpism.

As I documented in my 2009 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Gomorrah-Max-Blumenthal/dp/1568584172">Republican Gomorrah</a>,

the Council for National Policy was founded in 1981 with seed money

from T. Cullen Davis, a Texas oil billionaire who found his way to Jesus

and the Christian Right after a high-priced lawyer <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/how-cullen-davis-beat-the-rap-2/">secured his acquittal</a>

on charges that he hired a hit man to kill his ex-wife and her family,

then attempted the job himself, murdering his step-daughter and his

ex-wife’s boyfriend while paralyzing an innocent bystander and wounding

his ex-wife in the process, according to prosecutors.

When the CNP was first established, one of its founding fathers, the

Louisiana ultra-conservative politician Woody Jenkins, vowed to a

Newsweek reporter, “One day before the end of this century, the Council

will be so influential that no president, regardless of party or

philosophy, will be able to ignore us or our concerns or shut us out of

the highest levels of government.”

Under the watch of his protege, Tony Perkins, who also directs the

Christian Right policy factory known as the Family Research Council,

Jenkins’ pledge was fulfilled. The CNP secured promises from both <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121170&page=1">George W. Bush</a> and Trump to appoint exclusively anti-abortion judges to high courts, and recently <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/05/15/secretive-right-wing-nonprofit-plays-role-in-covid-19-organizing/">helped Trump allies</a> coordinate their response to the Covid-19 pandemic while astroturfing a series of anti-lockdown protests.

The secrecy maintained by the Council for National Policy throughout

its decades-long history has been strictly enforced by Perkins, who

demanded my ejection from an October 4-6, 2018 conference after learning

I was in attendance. I had secured an invitation to the gathering from

an anti-war member who no longer belongs to the Council, enabling me to

report on a speech that former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki

Haley gave to the group, in a <a href="https://harpers.org/2018/10/nikki-haley-at-the-council-for-national-policy/">feature for Harper’s Magazine</a>.

Perkins recognized me because I had published an <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Justice_Sunday%2523.22.27Justice_Sunday.27_Preachers.22">article</a>

in 2005 reporting his signing of a check for $82,500 to David Duke —

the former Ku Klux Klan leader and failed Republican gubernatorial

candidate — to purchase Duke’s mailing list on behalf of the senate

campaign of his mentor, Woody Jenkins. I had also noted Perkins’ 2001

speech before the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist

and neo-Confederate organization that racist mass murderer Dylan Roof

partially credited with his radicalization.

Infuriated by my presence in the inner sanctum of Christian Right

networking, Perkins and his lieutenants ordered me to immediately exit

the Charlotte, North Carolina hotel where the conference took place.

On my way out, I passed by Herman Cain, the former Godfather Pizza

CEO and Republican presidential candidate, holding court in the hotel

lobby. Cain died this July 30 after contracting Covid-19 at a Trump

rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Within hours, I was on a flight out of Charlotte with a thick CNP

members’ list and a pile of official Council literature in hand –

materials that were forbidden for outsiders to view and off-limits to

the public until now.

A few notable Council for National Policy members are described below. The full membership list follows.

Shawn Akers – Akers is the vice provost of Liberty University, which is currently reeling from the exposure of the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/pool-attendant-details-alleged-relationship-becki-jerry-falwell/story?id=72649159">bizarre sexual peccadilloes</a> of its chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., and his wife, Becky. Akers’ colleague at the CNP, journalist Warren Cole Smith, recently <a href="https://ministrywatch.com/the-falwell-fiasco-where-was-the-board/">hammered</a>

the board of Liberty University, where his daughter is enrolled, for

its failure to hold Falwell accountable over the years. The “trustees

failed the school’s students, faculty, administration, and parents,”

Smith wrote. “They failed donors and alumni. They failed to hold the one

member of the Liberty staff that reports to them to the Biblical

standards of leadership, or even to the standards that every member of

the Liberty community must live up to.”

Jerry Boykin – Boykin is best known as the US Delta

Force general who led the disastrous peacekeeping mission to Somalia

depicted in the book and blockbuster film “Black Hawk Down.” During the

US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3199212.stm">declared</a>

that his god “was bigger” than that of the Muslim warlords he battled

in Somalia, and that Muslims hated America because they worshiped Satan.

Boykin current serves as executive vice president for Tony Perkins’

Family Research Council in Washington.

Elsa Prince Broekhuizen – The Michigan-based mother

of Blackwater mercenary corporation founder and Trump Inc. consigliere

Erik Prince and his sister, Trump secretary of education and school

privatization advocate Betsy Devos. Prince Broekhuizen has plowed her

family’s auto parts fortune into various <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2008/10/local_money_fights_gay_marriag.html">anti-gay initiatives</a> over the years.

Stuart Epperson – The co-founder and president of

the right-wing evangelical broadcaster Salem Media, which is tied with

CBS News as the fifth-largest radio broadcaster in the US. Epperson’s

stations play host to right-wing personalities like Michele Malkin,

Sebastian Gorka, Hugh Hewitt, and Dennis Prager.

Mike Farris – A lawyer and homeschooling advocate,

Farris founded Patrick Henry College as a training ground for Christian

Right cadres seeking jobs in Washington’s halls of power. Vice President

Mike Pence <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pence-praises-alliance-defending-freedom-for-being-with-trump-every-step-of-the-way/">addressed</a> Farris’s Alliance Defending Freedom in 2019, praising the group for guiding the Trump administration’s agenda.

Tom Fitton – The president of the right-wing legal advocacy group Judicial Watch, which has <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/17/trump-justice-department-faith-coronavirus-193426">battled</a> Covid-19 lockdown policies, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012017/climate-change-noaa-donald-trump-lamar-smith-global-warming-hiatus">sued</a> climate scientists, and <a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trumps-special-relationship-with-judicial-watchs-tom-fitton/">helped guide</a> Trump’s messaging against the Democrats’ Russiagate onslaught.

Frank Gaffney – The <a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/frank-gaffney/">Center for Security Policy founder</a>

is a foreign policy militarist who emerged from neoconservative circles

to become a leading voice of anti-Muslim conspiracism while clamoring

for US military action against Iran and Syria. Gaffney has claimed that

Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin was a Muslim Brotherhood agent, warned

that that American Muslims were engaged in a “stealth jihad” to place

the country under the control of Sharia, and helped influence Trump’s

so-called Muslim ban.

Donna Rice-Hughes – Famous for bringing down former Democratic Senator Gary Hart’s presidential campaign after a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/was-gary-hart-set-up/570802/">possible set-up</a>,

when tabloids published photographs of her perched on the candidate’s

lap while carousing on his yacht, Rice-Hughes (formerly known only by

her birth name, Rice) came to Jesus and founded the anti-pornography

group, <a href="https://enough.org/donna_rice_hughes">Enough is Enough!</a> Today, she markets herself as a “progressive leader” and expert on “preventing the exploitation of children online.”

Jon Lenczowski – Founder of the <a href="https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/institute_of_world_politics/">Institute for World Politics</a>,

a Washington-based training institute for hardline interventionists,

Lenczowski takes a leading role in setting the CNP’s foreign policy

agenda. In recent months, he has been particularly focused on <a href="https://www.iwp.edu/speeches-lectures/2020/01/29/u-s-strategy-for-the-growing-china-threat/">reinforcing</a> the Trump administration’s new cold war narrative against China.

Herman Pirchner – The founding President of the

American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC), Pichner served on Trump’s

foreign policy transition team in 2016. <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2018/07/02/video-congress-welcomes-an-actual-fascist-as-nazi-violence-rages-in-ukraine/">The Grayzone reported Pirchner’s role in hosting Andriy Parubiy, a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist</a>

politician who co-founded the far-right Social National Party, for a

series of Capitol Hill meetings. Researcher Moss Robeson has <a href="https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/the-banderite-foreign-policy-council">documented</a> Pirchner’s activity as a key liaison between the Washington foreign policy establishment and Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas – The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas was part of the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ginni-thomas-supreme-court-trump-clarence-wife-justice-groundswell-a9354126.html">Groundswell network</a>

that compiled lists of “disloyal” Trump administration officials to be

fired. Her involvement with the CNP is an extension of a long history of

ethical entanglements that prompted 74 House Democrats to <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/house-democrats-say-justice-th.html">issue a letter</a> demanding Clarence Thomas recuse himself from ruling on the national healthcare overhaul, which she lobbied against[doc]pdf
<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/474142983/Council-for-National-Policy-member-list#download&from_embed">https://www.scribd.com/document/474142983/Council-for-National-Policy-member-list#download&from_embed</a>
</div><div>===
</div>