John Fleming
| John Fleming | |
 | |
Louisiana State Treasurer
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 8, 2024 | |
| Preceded by | John Schroder |
|---|---|
U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 4th congressional district
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| In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | James Otis "Jim" McCrery |
| Succeeded by | James Michael "Mike" Johnson |
| Born | July 5, 1951 Meridian, Mississippi |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Cindy Fleming |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
Military Service
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| Service/branch | United States Navy |
John Calvin Fleming, Jr. (born July 5, 1951 in Meridian, Mississippi), is the Republican state treasurer in Louisiana. He succeeded John Schroder in the position on January 8, 2024; Schroder did not seek reelection but instead ran unsuccessfully for governor, having been handily defeated by fellow Republican Jeff Landry.
After eleven months as state treasurer, Dr. Fleming announced in December 2024 that he will seek the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in November 2026 for the seat held by Moderate Republican Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, who opposes many of the initiatives of U.S. President Donald Trump. Fleming, who is strongly behind the Trump agenda, is the first conservative to enter the closed primary. A runoff will be held to select the party nominee if no primary candidates fails to top the 50 percent plus one vote threshold. Both Fleming and Cassidy are physicians. Other conservatives are expected to join the race.
Contents
Political life
Fleming is the former U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 4th congressional district, representing the cities of Minden, where he resides, and Shreveport, DeRidder, Bossier City, and Natchitoches. He was elected in 2008 by 356 votes, the closest House race that year, when he defeated the Caddo Parish District Attorney Paul Carmouche, a Democrat. Carmouche earlier had defeated fellow Democrat John Milkovich for the party's U.S. House nomination. Milkovich, a conservative Democrat who switched parties in 2023, resurfaced in 2015 to claim the District 38 seat in the Louisiana State Senate.
A physician]and businessman, Fleming served on the Armed Services and Natural Resources committees.[1] He vacated his House seat on January 3, 2017, to fellow Republican Mike Johnson of Bossier Parish, now the House Speaker.
Fleming was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in the November 8, 2016, primary election held in conjunction with the presidential election. The incumbent David Vitter did not seek a third term after having lost a race for governor in 2015. In the 24-candidate field, Fleming carried six parishes and finished fifth with 203,959 votes (11 percent). In sixth place with 5 percent was retired United States Air Force Colonel Rob Maness, a Senate candidate from 2014 who had been urged by Fleming supporters to drop out and instead to endorse Fleming. David Duke, a former figure in the Ku Klux Klan who joined the GOP in 1989, ran seventh with 58,581 votes (3 percent). Had the Maness and Duke votes instead gone to Fleming, the Minden physician would have been in the runoff election for the seat.[2] The top vote-getter, Republican state Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, defeated Democratic Public Service Commissioner Foster Lonnie Campbell, Jr., of Bossier Parish whose political career began as a state senator in 1976, for the right to succeed Vitter.[3]
In the Trump administration
In March 2017, Fleming accepted an appointment in the Donald Trump administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Technology Reform under then Secretary Tom Price of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Until Price was forced from the position, Fleming reported directly to Price, his former U.S. House colleague from Georgia. Fleming sought to establish newer digital filing systems to increase productivity in physicians' offices while enhancing competition in the technical industry. With his latest position, Fleming and his wife reside in Washington, D.C. He divested himself from his medical practice in Minden but maintain his residence and voting address there. Fleming said that he has not ruled out another run for elected office in the future.[4]
In June 2018, President Trump named Fleming the assistant secretary of commerce for economic development. The appointment drew the praise of Fleming's former senatorial opponent, John N. Kennedy.[5]
Fleming opposes the legalization of illicit narcotics. In 2006, he wrote, Preventing Addiction: What Parents Must Know to Immunize Their Kids Against Drug And Alcohol Addiction..[6]
On March 7, 2019, the United States Senate finally confirmed Fleming's nomination as assistant secretary of commerce (under Wilbur Ross) and director of the Economic Development Administration ina 67–30 vote. This agency supervises the issuance of matching grants to communities, including the possessions, to promote economic development and job creation in distressed areas harmed by natural disasters.[7] The appointment removes Fleming as a potential candidate for governor in 2019. Two Republicans, U.S. Representative Ralph Abraham and Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, failed to deny reelection to the Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards.
In April 2020, President Trump announced that Dr. Fleming would become "Assistant to the President for Planning and Implementation."
Election as state treasurer
In 2023, Fleming announced his candidacy for state treasurer and faced two primary opponents, Democrat Dustin Granger and fellow Republican Scott McKnight. Fleming led the primary with 442,665 votes (44 percent), while Granger who polled 321,426 (32 percent). McKnight received a respectable 241,130 votes (24 percent); his support was arguably decisive in the November 18 runoff election. In that race Fleming defeated Granger 437,303 (65 percent) to 230,961 (35 percent). The turnout in the race was barely 22 percent of registered voters.[8]
References
- ↑ Fleming's predecessors in the Fourth District House seat were Moderate Republican Jim McCrery and Democrats Buddy Roemer, Claude "Buddy" Leach, Jr., and Joe Waggonner.
- ↑ Election Returns. Louisiana Secretary of State (November 8, 2016). Retrieved on November 10, 2016.
- ↑ Tyler Bridges (November 9, 2016). Foster Campbell seen as facing steep climb in U.S. Senate race against John Kennedy. Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved on November 10, 2016.
- ↑ Blake Branch (March 21, 2017). Former Rep. John Fleming to join HHS under Trump. 'The Minden Press-Herald. Retrieved on March 22, 2017.
- ↑ Trump taps Fleming for economic development post. Minden Press-Herald (June 21, 2018).
- ↑ Fleming, John C. (2006). Preventing Addiction: What Parents Must Know to Immunize Their Kids Against Drug And Alcohol Addiction. Hannibal Books: A Christian Evangelical Publishing Company. Garland, Texas. ISBN 0929292456.
- ↑ Davd Specht (March 7, 2019). Dr. John Fleming confirmed to Cabinet post. Minden Press-Herald. Retrieved on March 8, 2019.
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 14 and November 18, 2023.
