Clay Higgins
Glen Clay Higgins is an American politician and reserve law enforcement officer from the state of Louisiana. A Republican, Higgins is the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. The district, which contains much of the territory once represented by former governor Edwin Edwards and former U.S. senator John Breaux, is in the southwestern corner of the state and includes Lafayette, Lake Charles, and New Iberia. Higgins won the runoff election on December 10, 2016, defeating fellow Republican Scott Angelle.
As well as being an elected official, Higgins continues to hold a law enforcement commission in a reserve capacity with the Louisiana attorney general's office. Higgins has appeared and spoken at events organized by groups such as the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, and has claimed to be a "Three Percenter" at speaking engagements. He is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and his political views have been identified as far-right. Higgins was the sole member of Congress to have voted against the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Early life and education
Higgins is the seventh of eight children. He was born in New Orleans, and his family moved to Covington, Louisiana, when he was six years old. The family raised and trained horses. After graduation from Covington High School, he attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but did not graduate.Career
At age 18, Higgins enlisted in the Military Police Corps of the Louisiana National Guard, serving for six years and reaching the rank of staff sergeant. Higgins supported the 1992 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan and the gubernatorial campaign of Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, despite Higgins describing Duke as a "Nazi" to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter.He worked for several years as a manager of car dealerships.
Local law enforcement
In 2004, Higgins became a patrol officer for the Opelousas City police department. By 2007, police chief Perry Gallow was prepared to take major disciplinary action against Higgins who was accused of beating a Black man who was handcuffed, then lying about it. In a letter to the city council, the police chief wrote, "Clay Higgins used unnecessary force on a subject during the execution of a warrant and later gave false statements during an internal investigation...although he later recanted his story and admitted to striking a suspect in handcuffs and later releasing him". Higgins resigned before disciplinary action could be imposed.The other patrolman involved in the 2007 incident, John Chautin, was later hired as a member of Higgins' congressional office in 2017. Chautin was first hired as a field representative but as of 2025, works as Higgins' district office director.
During the 2007 investigation into his mistreatment of an unarmed and handcuffed Black man, Higgins was caught in his SWAT vehicle and gear making an alcohol purchase at a gas station in violation of department rules. Higgins and another officer were heading to a competition including other members of the SWAT team. St. Landry Sheriff Bobby Guidroz would later claim he would have never hired Higgins had he known of these events.
In September 2016, during his congressional campaign, Higgins claimed to have resigned from the police force for other reasons, calling Gallow "a peacock, a colorful, flightless bird". Gallow, by then retired as police chief, publicly disputed Higgins's version of events.
Higgins worked for the Port Barre police department through 2010. In 2011, he joined the St. Landry Parish sheriff's office. After the office's public information officer was reassigned in October 2014, Higgins was appointed to the position and promoted to captain. As public information officer, Higgins made videos for the parish Crime Stoppers program. He first used standard scripts, but began to improvise in his own style, appealing to suspects to surrender and sometimes threatening them by name. His videos went viral, and in 2015 he was described by national media as the "Cajun John Wayne" for his intimidating persona. Sheriff Bobby Guidroz urged restraint, advising Higgins to refrain from personal comments about suspects and to keep a professional tone in his videos.
Higgins filmed a video for the state police, with a script that prompted protests from suspects' families and the ACLU. He resigned from the St. Landry Parish sheriff's office in February 2016. Guidroz had warned him against using disrespectful and demeaning language about suspects, ordering him to "Tone down his unprofessional comments on our weekly Crime Stoppers messages". He issued a statement saying that Higgins's comments underlined "a growing undertone of insubordination and lack of discipline on Higgins' part". Guidroz said that Higgins had gone against department policy by misusing his badge and uniform for personal profit and gain, citing Higgins's wearing a uniform in an ad for a security firm. He also reprimanded Higgins for using his badge and uniform on his personal website to support sales of T-shirts and shot glasses for his limited liability corporation. Higgins had also used the department's physical address in registering his corporation with the state. Both actions were against department policy.
Salon reported that during this period, Higgins "negotiated paid speaking appearances with other police departments. In one email, Higgins discussed his request for a speaker's fee that included shopping money for his wife and part of the fuel for a friend's private plane." He asked for cash payments. Higgins also conducted his private business via email on "his government email-account during work hours without the permission or knowledge of his supervisors. Higgins also appears to have attempted to conceal his earnings from the IRS in order to avoid wage garnishment for unpaid taxes. Whether those actions constitute tax fraud is unclear."
Shortly after resigning from St. Landry Parish, in March 2016, Higgins was accepted and sworn in as a reserve deputy marshal in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. Reserve forces in city and Parish sheriff's offices in Louisiana receive regular training and are commissioned as law enforcement officers. They are part-time and made up of persons from many walks of life.
In 2019, Higgins retired his commission as a reserve deputy marshal. He maintains an active law enforcement commission as a reserve officer with the Louisiana attorney general's office.
Honors
Higgins was awarded the title of Kentucky colonel in March 2016 by Kentucky governor Matt Bevin.U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2016
After Higgins resigned from the St. Landry sheriff's office, Chris Comeaux, a Republican campaign staffer, recruited him to run for office. In May 2016, Higgins declared his candidacy in the 2016 election in the 3rd district. He crossed district lines to run for this seat, as his home in Port Barre is in the neighboring 5th district. Members of the House are only constitutionally required to live in the state they represent. A super PAC headed by US senator David Vitter's former chief of staff supported Higgins's candidacy.Higgins finished second in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 8, behind Republican Scott Angelle, in which nearly 68% of the parish voted. He faced Angelle in a runoff election on December 10 and won with 56.1% of the vote; turnout had declined to about 28% of voters.
2018
Higgins was challenged by Democrats Rob Anderson, Mildred "Mimi" Methvin, Larry Rader, and Verone Thomas, Libertarian Aaron Andrus, and Republican Josh Guillory. Donald Trump endorsed Higgins. He defeated all six challengers in the jungle primary, winning reelection without a runoff.In response to protests in response to the police shooting death of Trayford Pellerin, Higgins made a post on Facebook stating he would "drop 10 of you where you stand".
2020
Higgins was reelected with 67.76% of the vote to Democrat Braylon Harris's 17.89%, Democrat Rob Anderson's 11.59%, and Libertarian Brandon Leleux's 2.75%.2022
Higgins was reelected with 64.3% of the vote to Republican Holden Hoggatt's 10.9%, Democrat Lessie Olivia Leblanc's 10.5%, Democrat Tia LeBrun's 9.4%, Republican Thomas "Lane" Payne, Jr.'s 1.8%, Independent Gloria R. Wiggins's 1.4%, Republican Jacob "Jake" Shaheen's 0.9%, and Libertarian Guy McLendon's 0.7%.2024
Higgins was reelected with 70.6% of the vote. Democratic challengers Priscilla Gonzalez and Sadi Summerlin won 18.7% and 6.6% of the vote, respectively, while Republican challenger Xan John won 4.1%.Tenure
Higgins was sworn into the United States House of Representatives on January 3, 2017.He has claimed to sleep on an air mattress on the floor of his Capitol Hill office. He works out and showers in the House gymnasium in the early morning.
Higgins voted with other Republicans in favor of the American Health Care Act of 2017, which would have repealed and replaced major portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In December 2017, Higgins voted with other Republicans in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on November 15, 2023, Higgins floated an unfounded conspiracy theory that violence during the January 6 United States Capitol attack were caused by FBI agents infiltrating the protests through "ghost buses" and posing as Trump supporters.
As of the 117th Congress, Higgins voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 2% of the time according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
Higgins was among 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.
On July 29, 2024, Higgins was announced as one of seven Republican members of a bipartisan task force investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.