Earlier this month, Louisiana House Democrats tapped State Rep. Matthew Willard to chair their caucus starting next year.

Willard currently represents New Orleans-based District 97, which includes Gentilly and parts of Mid-City. He served previously as the vice chair of the caucus under outgoing state Rep. Sam Jenkins, who recently won a state Senate seat.

After Republicans won all statewide elections this fall and claimed a legislative supermajority this year, Democrats are likely to wield significantly less power than during outgoing Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ tenure. 

Verite News spoke with Willard to discuss the state Democratic party’s priorities in that context this upcoming session.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Verite: What made you put your name in the race for House Democratic chair?

Willard: So I’ve been vice chair for the last two years. And I work closely with our former chairman, Sam Jenkins, who’s now Sen.-elect Sam Jenkins out of the Shreveport area. He taught me a few things about leadership, especially as it relates to the caucus. 

Sometimes being in that position means sacrificing self-gain. It means prioritizing the needs of the caucus over the needs of an individual, even yourself. I think as we head into this new term, with the new governor coming in, and really with a different group of legislators, it’s important for the House Democratic Caucus to have leadership who’s been in those meetings and part of those conversations, who can effectively communicate and who can help members with their own needs and their own priorities. 

At the same time, [another priority for caucus leadership is to] do the work of the state party, or at least supplement the work of the state party to kind of excite, invigorate Democratic voters throughout the state. Because we can’t lie to ourselves, the election cycle was not pretty. Any way you slice it, it just was not pretty. It was a terrible outcome for Democrats. And I think a lot of them are deflated and jaded and kind of hopeless.

So part of my job is to make sure that those voters and those people [from] Louisiana understand that the House Democratic Caucus will continue fighting for them in Baton Rouge and prioritizing the needs of working families, children, businesses and small business owners throughout the state of Louisiana. We did that the previous four years, and we will continue to do that. I think that’s part of what we’ll be seeking to achieve during the next few years.

Verite: What are the issues House Democrats are most concerned about for the upcoming cycle?

Willard: Well, there’s a number of them. Homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance is definitely a pressing issue. I think that’s at the forefront of a lot of members’ minds. So we’ll definitely be bringing legislation to help provide some relief and hopefully help stabilize the homeowner’s insurance market right now, because it’s in a state of crisis. 

The fortified roof program, which I ran and passed legislation on this year, is a great help. But it’s only available to 3,000 people right now, so we definitely want to see that program funded, as well as looking at legislation to address some of the gaps that it has right now. We know that lower-income families, even with the $10,000 grant, still are unable to access [roof fortification] because of the other out-of-pocket costs. 

It looks like we’ll have a special session dealing with crime in February. We’ll definitely be taking a close look at some of those policies coming from the governor and members of the Legislature. I think we all can agree that crime is a problem in much of Louisiana right now. And I think there’s ways that we can work together that will have an impact for the betterment of Louisiana and actually reduce crime and reduce recidivism.

But at the same time, we’re going to be cautious of proposals that are looking to rollback J.R.I. initiatives [criminal justice reforms passed in 2017] and may try to go back to the time where the solution was to lock everybody up and throw away the key. We know that the data does not support that as true viable solutions to crime. 

And then education. Louisiana consistently ranks at the bottom of lists as it relates to public K-12 education. So we’ll be continuing to champion investing in early childhood education. We’ll continue championing pay raises for public school teachers and support staff and trying to make sure that our schools, teachers and support staff have all the resources that they need to not only succeed, but to provide the best education opportunities as possible in the classroom. 

We’ll also be looking at health care initiatives and different ways to improve birthing outcomes in the state and trying to utilize some of the federal dollars related to infrastructure funding, because we know we have a lot of needs as it relates to infrastructure in the state of Louisiana. 

Verite: Republicans have captured the governor’s seat and obtained a supermajority among the legislative and executive branches. How will you and Democrats navigate the upcoming hurdle of passing new policies?

Willard: I mean, we gotta be realistic, it’s definitely going to have an impact. And we will quickly see how much of a friend not only to the House Democratic Caucus, but really to the people of Louisiana, that Gov. John Bel Edwards was. 

I say that, being somewhat cautiously optimistic as we head into this new term. The way I view things, Louisiana has a number of problems, a number of issues that the people of this state need the Legislature to address. I’m hoping that we can work together to address those issues to provide a better quality of life to people in Louisiana, to retain our best and brightest in Louisiana once they finish high school or once they graduate from college. 

There’s a lot of issues out there that we can work together on in a bipartisan manner. Some of the issues we know are going to be an uphill battle. We have a lot of new members of the Legislature. So that’s going to be a different dynamic. … [In sessions in recent years with a Republican majority,] we were able to use our more-than-a-third number of votes to block legislation and to better negotiate on behalf of the Democratic caucus. That opportunity is not available to us right now. But at the same time, we know that the Republican leadership is going to have to work with the Democratic caucus on issues as well. So we’re really hoping that the new batch of leadership considers us as an equal partner in the Legislature, because at the same time, they represent their constituents, we represent our constituents. 

[Republican Gov.-elect Jeff] Landry talked about uniting the state of Louisiana. That can’t be done if you ignore the representatives of the House Democratic Caucus. So I do think that there will be opportunities for us to work together, but at the same time, I’m not naive to how difficult it will be for us to pass certain types of legislation. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try. We’re going to keep fighting and keep going back to the table to advocate for the people in Louisiana who do not have paid lobbyists on their side.

Verite: What are some of those contentious issues that you foresee in this upcoming cycle?

Willard: Well, certainly around crime. We’ll have some probably tense debates as it relates to the budget. Certain health care policies, especially as we talk about exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother as it relates to the abortion law in Louisiana. When it comes to insurance reforms, do we want to pass more consumer-friendly policies? Or do we want to pass more industry-friendly policies? I think there’s a balance to be had on that for sure. But at the end of the day, who wins? I think it’s too early to tell. But I do know that everybody in Louisiana is suffering from our insurance crisis.

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Khalil Gillon is a New Orleans native from Algiers. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School and is a graduate of Louisiana State University in political journalism. Passionate about politics, Gillon ran...