Robert Mills

'Robert Mills (full name and date and place of birth missing) is the incoming Republican state senator for District 36 in Bienville, Bossier, Claiborne, and Webster parishes in northwestern Louisiana. A conservative, Mills unseated Ryan Gatti, a Moderate Republican from Bossier City, who was seeking his second term in the general election held on November 16, 2019. Mills is one the first state legislative candidates to be endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who urged voter support for Mills in rallies in Monroe and Bossier City, when Trump was campaigning for the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate, Eddie Rispone.

Mills polled 22,050 votes (56 percent) to Gatti's 17,209 (44 percent). Earlier on October 12, Mills led in the nonpartisan blanket primary with 48 percent of the ballots cast, but a third candidate, a Democrat, polled enough votes to force a second round of balloting.

Mills graduated (year not available) from Clifton Ellis Byrd High School in Shreveport, where he resided until he relocated to Benton in Bossier Parish. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Louisiana State University (unclear if it is at the Baton Rouge main campus or at the LSU branch in Shreveport). He since was employed in the petroleum, natural gas, and lumber businesses. Since 2015, he has been the vice president of Crude Oil Supply, South.

Mills also carried earlier endorsements from U.S. Senator John Neely Kennedy and U.S. Representative Mike Johnson of the state's 4th congressional district. Mills challenged Gatti for his close personal friendship with Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards and his support for tax increases which Edwards obtained from a nominally Republican-majority legislature. In the same election in which Edwards turned back the challenge from Eddie Rispone, the governor' s friend Gatti was unseated. Mills said that Gatti has offered to help with the transition of the senatorial office.

Mills said that tort reform is his legislative priority in 2020. Even though he expects a veto for such proposed legislation from Governor Edwards, he hopes the legislature, with an even larger Republican majority in Edwards' second term, can override the governor.