Mike Walsworth

Michael Arthur "Mike" Walsworth
Louisiana State Senator for District 33 (Monroe-based)
In office 2008–2020
Preceded by	Robert J. Barham
Succeeded by	Stewart Cathey
Louisianna State Representative for District 15
In office 1996–2008
Preceded by	Charles Anding
Succeeded by	Frank A. Hoffmann
Born	March 27, 1956 West Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Name of spouse missing
Children	Lindsay Michelle Walsworth Parents: Leo Walsworth and Lila "Tootsie" Kitchens Walsworth
Alma mater	West Monroe High School University of Louisiana at Monroe
Occupation	Real estate developer
Religion	Churches of Christ

Michael Arthur Walsworth, known as Mike Walsworth (born March 27, 1956), is an American real estate developer from West Monroe, Louisiana, who served as a Republican member of both houses of the state legislature for twenty-four years from 1996 to 2002. He represented Senate District 33 from 2008 to 2020. Previously, he represented House District 15.

Background

Walsworth was born to Leo Walsworth and the former Lila "Tootsie" Kitchens (1921-2007) in West Monroe adjacent to Monroe in Ouachita Parish. His maternal grandparents, Marshall and Emily Kitchens, operated a grocery store in Monroe. Walsworth graduated from West Monroe High School in 1974. Thereafter, he procured a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana University). A real estate developer, he previously worked in management of Coca-Cola. He is affiliated with the Greater Ouachita Lions International, the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Civitan Club, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and the American Heart Association. He is also involved in the United Way, National Rifle Association, and ULM Alumni Association. Walsworth is the song leader at a local Churches of Christ. He is the father of one daughter, Lindsay Michelle Walsworth.

Political life

Walsworth's former Senate district includes Ouachita, Claiborne, Morehouse, Union, and West Carroll parishes . He defeated the Democratic State Representative Charles McDonald of the Fairbanks community in northern Ouachita Parish to succeed the term-limited Republican Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish. In that race, Walsworth polled 17,292 (51.7 percent) to McDonald's 16,058 (48.3 percent). McDonald's House seat, to which he was term-limited, was narrowly won in the November 17, 2007, state election by a Republican, Sam Little, a retired farmer from Bastrop, seat of Morehouse Parish. In a 2013 committee meeting, a question which Walsworth raised, about the theory of evolution as it relates to E. Coli bacteria, caused his critics to claim that he lacks basic scientific knowledge.

From 1984 to 1996, Walsworth was a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee. On February 9, 2008, he sought to return to the committee to represent his former State Representative District 15 berth. But he withdrew his candidacy two days before the closed primary election, and the position went by default to M. Randall "Randy" Donald. Walsworth was first elected to the state House in the 1995 primary when he unseated the two-term Democrat Charles Anding of West Monroe and assumed the seat in January 1996.

Walsworth claimed that his political activities have been geared to "looking at the generation, not the next election." As a legislator, Walsworth worked to establish the Ouachita Port and Expressway commissions. He authored a law which renders video voyeurism illegal in Louisiana. He worked on the Ethics Reform Bill to prohibit lawmakers from doing business with the state. He also worked to pass limited tort reform in his first legislative session. He has pushed for funding of rural schools, which abound in House District 15 and Senate District 33.

In his initial election to the House, Walsworth defeated Charles Anding, 7,745 (55 percent) to 6,403 (45 percent). In 1999, with 9,060 votes (67 percent), Walsworth defeated Democrat Royce Calhoun, who had 4,441 votes (33 percent), to win a second term in the House. Walsworth ran unopposed in 2003 for his third and final term in the House.

In 2013, Walsworth joined Moderate Republican Rob Shadoin of Ruston to rename the Louisiana Highway 33 bridge over Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville after Representative James Peyton Smith of Union Parish, who had died in 2006.

Creationism and other controversy

In a 2013 committee hearing on Louisiana Senate Bill 374, Walsworth raised a question which, according to Walsworth's critics, revealed his misapprehension, or misrepresentation, of the theory of evolution. Walsworth's question was about an experiment on E. coli bacteria. As a science teacher described Richard Lenski's decades-long study with E. coli bacteria which froze some and allowed others to evolve, Walsworth asked whether any of the bacteria evolved—during the experiment—into human beings. His critics claim that Walsworth either lacks knowledge of, or misrepresented, or expressed a jocular attitude toward, the scientific method by describing as "just a theory" the entire process of evolution. Louisiana Senate Bill 374 was designed to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act.

In 2014, Walsworth was alleged to have been involved in conveying a video to the weekly newspaper, The Ouachita Citizen, published in West Monroe. The video showed Republican then United States Representative Vance McAllister of Louisiana's 5th congressional district in an ostensibly passionate kiss with his subordinate, Melissa Anne Hixon Peacock, who was married to a longtime friend of McAllister, who is also married. Walsworth firmly denied any connection with, or even knowledge of, the video prior to its publication. The video, which had been anonymously left with The Ouachita Citizen, evoked a national news story. Later in the same year McAllister failed to win re-election, being eliminated in the nonpartisan blanket primary. Advancing to the general election were the Monroe's Democrat Mayor, Jamie Mayo, an African-American and the veterinarian and physician Ralph Abraham of Mangham, in Richland Parish. Abraham, a Republican, won the seat and replacing McAllister. Abraham was also an unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate in the primary held on October 12, 2019.

2015 reelection campaign

To remain in the state Senate, Walsworth defeated former U.S. Representative Vance McAllister in the state primary held on October 24, 2015. "It's important to end the Jindal-Walsworth administration," quipped McAllister, a reference to Walsworth's longtime backing of Governor Bobby Jindal. "They’ve been there eight years and we've got nothing to show for it," McAllister added.

McAllister called for debates with Walsworth in all six parishes in Senate District 33, but Walsworth said that six debates in five weeks would have been unrealistic. McAllister claimed that Walsworth plans to run for mayor of West Monroe when the long-term incumbent, Democrat Dave Norris, retires: "Everybody knows he wants to run for mayor. I've seen how the state has suffered while Jindal ran for another job," McCallister said.

Walsworth handily turned back McAllister's challenge, 15,891 votes (62.3 percent) to 9,626 (37.7 percent).

In January 2016, Senate President John Alario appointed Walsworth chairman of the Environment Committee.

Walsworth did not run for mayor of West Monroe in 2018, but another Republican, Staci Albritton Mitchell, unseated Mayor Dave Norris, who had first been elected in 1978. In 2019, Walsworth was an unsuccessful candidate for Ouacita Parish Clerk of Court. He polled 23,963 votes (49 percent), but victory went to the Independent Dana Benson, who finished with 24,918 votes (51 percent).