At least three Louisiana state representatives have formed a new political caucus modeled after a group of ultra-conservative lawmakers in Washington who defied Kevin McCarthy’s recent effort to be named speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The so-called Louisiana Freedom Caucus names as its priorities limiting government’s role in society, crafting laws that adhere to the values of the U.S. and Louisiana constitutions and upholding the “liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans,” organizers said in a press release. Its three public members are Reps. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, Larry Frieman, R-Abita Springs, and Beryl Amedée, R-Gray.
How much influence the caucus will wield when lawmakers return to Baton Rouge on Monday to kick off the 2023 regular session is unclear, in part because the group will not publicly reveal the remainder of its membership.
It is “up to the individual member to make known his or her LAFC membership,” Freedom Caucus organizers said in a press statement. The U.S. Freedom Caucus in Congress, which the group is affiliated with, also does not publicize its membership.
“I don’t really know that anyone knows who’s in the Freedom Caucus, aside from their leadership,” House Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee, R-Houma, said Wednesday.
The Louisiana House already has two politically conservative caucuses — the 70-member House Republican Caucus chaired by Rep. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, and the 42-member Conservative Caucus headed by Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield. Miguez and McFarland could not immediately be reached.
Seabaugh will chair the Freedom Caucus; Frieman and Amedée will also serve in leadership roles, the group said.
Members of the national Freedom Caucus initially approached the three Louisiana legislators about starting a local chapter, leading them to fly to Washington after Christmas where they sat down with U.S. House Freedom Caucus members to discuss the plan, Seabaugh said.
Seabaugh said that there are issues that the fiscally focused Louisiana Conservative Caucus has not tackled because of its purview, such as education. The Louisiana chapter will be focus more on networking with like-minded Freedom Caucus members in Washington and other states than on staking out distinct policy positions, Seabaugh said.
“We do not intend to step on the toes of the Republican delegation or of the Conservative Caucus,” he said.
Louisiana is one of 11 states to launch a local Freedom Caucus chapter, the group said, each of which gets policymaking support rom the national Freedom Caucus chapter in Washington.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., left, sits next to U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., in the House chamber as the House meets for the third day to elect a speaker and convene the 118th Congress in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Louisiana’s Freedom Caucus chapter earned an endorsement this week from U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, who said he “fully supports this effort to bring principled, Constitutionalist leadership to Louisiana’s State Legislature.”
Nearly all of the 20 or so Republican House members who threatened to torpedo the speakership bid of U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, belong to the U.S. House Freedom Caucus or are closely aligned with it, according to a Pew Trusts report from January.
McCarthy eventually won the speakership — after agreeing to give the Freedom Caucus more representation on the powerful Rules Committee and other powerful House panels.
A data analysis detailed in the Pew Trusts report found that U.S. Freedom Caucus members and allies are among the most ideologically conservative of House Republicans.
Of 40 current Freedom Caucus members and allies who were serving at the time of the certification of President Joe Biden’s election, 38 supported at least one objection to counting Biden’s electoral votes, the report found.
A smaller share of all other House Republicans seated at the time — about 60% — did so, the Pew report found.
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