Who is Representative Clay Higgins?
REPRESENTATIVE Clay Higgins was elected to Louisiana's third congressional district in 2017.
On May 17, 2023, the politician garnered criticism for the way he handled a protester at a press conference in Washington DC.
Who is Clay Higgins?
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) was born in 1961 and raised on a horse ranch in New Orleans, Louisiana.
He attended the local high school and moved on to Lousiana State University in 1979.
After graduating in 1983, he joined the Louisiana National Guard as a military police officer.
Higgins worked his way up to the position of E-6, Staff Sergeant but in 2004 he retired from the National Guard to pursue law enforcement as a street cop.
The Crime Stoppers videos were Higgins' claim to fame and propelled him onto a platform that made him a household name.
His time in the role ended in 2015 when he resigned from his position with the Landry Sheriff's Department and he was later elected to Congress in 2017 at what he says was the behest of followers on social media.
How did Clay Higgins get into politics?
Before he was a congressional representative, Higgins worked in the Landry Sheriff's Department in Louisiana filming Crime Stoppers videos.
He gained critical acclaim for these videos showing a tough-on-crime crackdown.
Higgins became known as the Cajun John Wayne and was mentioned on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon who showed a Crime Stoppers clip of Higgins addressing a man who burglarized Stelly's Supermarket.
The clip was filmed outside the supermarket and posted on YouTube in 2015 and Higgins addresses the camera in a monotone voice, using quips to pull in viewers.
In the Crime Stoppers segment, Higgins speaks to the male who robbed the supermarket and said, "By tomorrow, about 100k people will have watched you commit a felony. You will be recognized. And the people that know you don't really like you anyway.
"So when it comes down to a choice between you and a thousand dollars, they'll take the cash."
Higgins resigned from the sheriff's department in February 2016 "as a matter of principle," reported.
While Higgins did not elaborate, Sheriff Bobby Guidroz of the Landry Sheriff's Department told The Times in a statement that he had asked Higgins to tone down his "disrespectful and demeaning" comments on the Crime Stoppers videos.
He said he had also told Higgins not to create a personal business through the department by selling "mugs, T-shirts, and other trinkets using department badge and uniform."
When Higgins announced he was leaving the Landry Sheriff's Department, he said he received a sign to enter politics in the form of social media posts and comments.
He told The Times, “Probably over 2,000 of them were from patriots of every shade of ideology and every color and creed, ethnicity and heritage, solid American men and women across the country, imploring me to seek federal office.”
After much consideration, Higgins decided to run for Congress in Louisiana's third congressional district in 2015, and a year later, he won.
What happened at the press conference in Washington DC?
Higgins is under fire for his handling of a protester during a press conference in Washington DC on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
Jake Burdett, 25, took to Twitter to post a series of of his interactions with the congressman while he was trying to confront Arizona representative, Paul Gosar, and Colorado representative, Lauren Boebert.
As Burdett is yelling questions during Gosar's speech, Higgins walks up to him, introduces himself as a representative from Louisiana, and asks the activist to “peacefully stand by with your camera and I promise you … I’ll come talk to you straight up and answer all your questions. Fair enough?”
However, when Burdett starts yelling questions at Boebert about her divorce, Higgins is seen forcibly leading the protester away from the press conference.
“Aren’t you a congressperson, touching me?” the protester says in the video. “Get off me! You’re hurting me!”
After the incident, Higgins told the that Burdett was “threatening,” and that he was turned over to the Capitol Police.
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The protester was later released, although Higgins has garnered criticism for how he handled the situation.
"You absolutely should get a lawyer and press charges against him. This behavior must NOT be tolerated," one user commented on Burdett's tweet.