{{infobox Infobox officeholder
|name=Francis Coleman Thompson
|birth_date=October 29, 1941
|residence=Delhi, Richland Parish, Louisiana
}}
'''Francis Coleman Thompson ''' (born October 29, 1941)[1] is a wealthy developer from Delhi in Richland Parish, [[Louisiana, U]].S., where he served He srved as a senior [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He served continuously from 1975 until 2007. Because of state term limits, Thompson was ineligible to have sought a ninth four-year term in the jungle nonpartisan blanket primary on October 20, 2007.
Instead, Thompson was elected outright over two fellow Democrats to the District 34 seat in the Louisiana State Senate vacated by the also term-limited Charles Jones (born 1950) of [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]. Thompson received 13,763 votes (51 percent) to 10,937 (42 percent) for African-American State Representative Willie Hunter, Jr., of Monroe and 2,113 (8 percent) for Paxton J. Branch.[2]Ten days after he vacated the seat to Thompson, Charles Jones was charged with two counts of making and subscribing a false federal income tax return and one count of tax evasion.[3]
Hunter charged irregularities in the primary election in part on grounds that certain Thompson supporters in heavily black East Carroll Parish distributed food packages to the poor with instructions that they should vote for Francis Thompson to maintain such assistance.[4]
In addition to his own Richland Parish, Thompson's House district included all or portions of East Carroll, Madison, Morehouse, Ouachita, and West Carroll parishes in northeast Louisiana. His Senate district will include parts of Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, Ouachita, Richland, and Tensas parishes.
Contents1 Early years and education2 Interest in agriculture3 Poverty Point case4 Other political developments5 References6 External linksEarly years and education==Background==Thompson graduated from Delhi High School in 1959. He received his bachelor of science Bachelor and master Master of science Science degrees from [[Louisiana Tech University ]] in [[Ruston, the seat of Louisiana|Ruston]] in Lincoln Parish. He also procured an Ed.D. degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe (then Northeast Louisiana University). Thompson was a teacher from 1963-1965, but he vacated the classroom to become vice president of a manufacturing company from 1965-1972. Later, he returned to the classroom as a ULM assistant professor of education.[1]
From 1968-to 1975, Thompson was an elected member of the Richland Parish School Board.[1] He won a special election in 1975 to fill the House seat vacated by the resignation of Democrat Benny Gay Christian (1925-1982),[5] who had served in the state House since 1964. Later in the year, Thompson won a full term in the seat, which in time became the single-member District 19. Prior to his legislative years, Thompson worked in [[Baton Rouge ]] for the Louisiana Department of Education under Superintendent Louis J. Michot from 1974-1975. He was a member of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement from 1973-1974. Thompson has also been a member of the Southern Regional Education Board and the Education Commission of the States. He has been active in the Retarded Children's Association and the Louisiana Mental Health Drug Advisory Council. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Lions ClubInternational.
Thompson is married to the former Marilyn Bryant[1] (born October 6, 1944). The couple lives at 456 Robin Hood Lane in Delhi. They have three children, including sons Francis Todd Thompson (born cac. 1963) of Baton Rouge and Brant L. Thompson (born April 1, 1965 of Delhi, and daughter, Melissa T. Blanchfield of Baton Rouge.[6] Thompson is a [[Presbyterian]].
Interest in agriculture
Other political developments
In 1996, Thompson ran for the open Fifth District seat in the United States House of Representatives. He polled 50,144 votes (28 percent) and went into a general election with the Republican ophthalmologist John Cooksey of Monroe, who led in the jungle primary with 60,853 ballots (34 percent). Former U.S. Representative Clyde C. Cecil Holloway (1943-2016) of Rapides Parish trailed in third place with 48,226 (27 percent).[11] Holloway then endorsed Cooksey, who defeated Thompson by a comfortable margin. Cooksey received 135,990 votes (58 percent) to the more liberal Thompson's 97,363 (42 percent).[12] Cooksey served three terms before leaving the U.S. House early in 2003. Cooksey's campaign manager, Lee Fletcher, was thereafter named as his chief of staff. Fletcher tried to win the House seat himself in 2002 but lost to Democrat (later Republican) [[Rodney AlexanderAlexande]]r.
Though he is a Democrat, Thompson broke party ranks in the 2003 gubernatorial primary to support [[Republican Party|Republican]] candidate Huntington "Hunt " Downer of Houmain Terrebonne Parish, a former state House Speaker, who finished sixth in the balloting though he had the support of a cross-section of state legislators from both parties.
In 2005, Francis Thompson was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[13]