HAYRIDE: Julie Emerson - The Quiet Power Behind Louisiana’s Conservative Comeback

New from the Haywirde & Michael Lunsford

(Citizens for a New Louisiana) — Louisiana politics is like football — passionate fans, rival teams, and more drama than policy. Everyone’s got a jersey, a hashtag, and a side to cheer for. But while the loudest players chase the spotlight, a handful of quiet workhorses actually move the ball down the field. One of them is Julie Emerson.

A decade ago, she knocked off a liberal incumbent in what was one of Louisiana’s historically Democrat districts. Since then, she’s built a record that doesn’t shout; it delivers. As chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, she reshaped capital spending — cutting pork, redirecting funds to infrastructure — and has led landmark fights for life, education freedom, parental rights, and tax reform.

Now, as she steps into the race for U.S. Senate, many voters are realizing something surprising: they know her name, but not her story.

From Underdog to Leader

It all started nearly ten years ago, when Julie Emerson ran against liberal incumbent Stephen Ortego. Her campaign slogan summed up the mood perfectly: “It’s a shame that such a conservative area of Louisiana has such a liberal representative.”

She ran the kind of campaign you’d expect from South Louisiana — camouflage jacket, duck-hunting ads, and a smile that made her easy to underestimate. Few expected her to win — but win she did.

By her fourth year in office, she’d earned a seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which controls Louisiana’s budget. Under Speaker Taylor Barras’ leadership — still affectionately known as #OurSpeaker — she worked alongside fellow conservatives to help keep Governor John Bel Edwards boxed in for four straight years.

Exile and “Fraud Squad” Years

In the next term, John Bel Edwards figured out he didn’t like conservatives in charge. So he coordinated a handful of Republicans with a united Democratic Party to throw their support behind Clay “Shakedown” Schexnayder. And so, it went that he became the Speaker of the House.

Conservatives were out, and moderates were in. Emerson, once trusted with a seat on Appropriations, was exiled from the state’s money committees altogether.

That four-year stretch tested every real conservative in the House. The governor’s allies, dubbed the “Fraud Squad,” controlled committees, blocked reform, and punished dissenters. Many legislators learned to play along. Julie didn’t. She spent those years building relationships, studying the mechanics of state finance, and waiting for the tide to turn.

The Return of Conservatism

When Jeff Landry won the governor’s race outright in 2023, the change was immediate. In both chambers, conservative reformers closed ranks. The old order collapsed almost overnight. Some of the previous leadership figures, like the ever-wrinkled and disheveled Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee, didn’t even bother running for re-election. Those who did come back for the new term faded into the background.

With Phillip DeVillier elected Speaker — thanks in part to Emerson’s behind-the-scenes coalition-building — the House finally reflected the voters who sent them there. Jack McFarland took over Appropriations, and Julie Emerson reclaimed her seat at the table — this time as Chairwoman of Ways and Means, the most powerful committee in the entire legislature.

She Even Jokingly Calls It the “Ways to be Mean” Committee.

From that perch, she began reshaping Louisiana’s capital outlay process — the mechanism that decides where the state’s construction dollars go. In the House, Emerson drew a hard line: no more pork projects or NGO giveaways disguised as “economic development.” Under her watch, the House version of the bill focused on real infrastructure — roads, bridges, drainage, and public facilities that serve taxpayers, not political patrons.

But the Senate hasn’t yet gotten the memo. Senators loaded the bill with pet projects and held it until the closing days of the session, forcing the House to accept the pork or risk a costly extension. Nobody wants to send spending bills to a conference committee; those backroom “compromises” have a way of making bad bills worse. Plus, by then, most members are ready to pass something just so they can go home.

Even so, within her own chamber, Julie Emerson changed the culture. For the first time in years, the House’s capital budget looked more like a plan for public works than a political Christmas tree.

The Gator Scholarship: Freedom in Education

Julie Emerson isn’t the type to chase cameras or speeches. In a building full of primadonnas, she’s a goal-setter and a team-builder. While others perform for headlines, she’s focused on results. Doing that in the Louisiana House takes 53 votes — you plus 52. She builds a team, sets goals, and everyone plays a part in making things happen.

That’s how Louisiana got the Gator Scholarship Program, a genuine escape hatch for kids trapped in failing schools. Emerson authored HB745 in the 2024 Regular Session to let parents use state funds to move their children to better schools — public or private. It passed the House easily but stalled in the Senate.

Most politicians would have sulked. Julie didn’t. Instead, she picked up Rick Edmonds‘ SB313, an identical bill moving through the other chamber, and carried it on the House floor. She didn’t care who got the credit — only that Louisiana families had the chance to choose a better future.

That kind of humility is rare in Baton Rouge, and it’s part of why she succeeds where others stall.

Fixing the “Operation Chaos” Primary

Rush Limbaugh coined ‘Operation Chaos’ to describe Louisiana’s jungle primary — a system that lets Democrats vote in Republican nominations. The result keeps establishment incumbents like Bill Cassidy safely in office. Julie Emerson’s HB17 put an end to that.

The MAGA base is still furious with Cassidy for voting to convict President Trump. Emerson saw the structural problem: as long as Democrats could help choose Republican nominees, Louisiana would keep sending moderates to Washington.

Now, thanks to her work, Republican candidates must face Republican voters, not a coalition of crossovers. Even more ironic, the very law she authored may be what opened the door for her own Senate run — and for a new generation of conservative challengers.

Making Libraries Family Friendly

Emerson’s quiet persistence also shaped one of the state’s most contentious cultural debates: children’s library books.

In 2023, Sen. Heather Cloud’s SB7 became the vehicle that ultimately protected children’s sections from sexually explicit material. But before that, Emerson had filed an identical House version, HB102 — only to see it buried in the notorious Municipal, Parochial, and Cultural Affairs Committee.

Conservatives know that committee by another name: the House Kill Committee — the same committee that quietly shelves conservative bills every session. Run by Democrats and establishment allies and stacked with the likes of C. Denise Marcelle, Alonzo Knox, Barbara Freiberg, the infamous Joe Stagni, and others, it’s where good bills go to die.

So Emerson did what she does best: stayed focused on the goal, not the credit. When Cloud’s bill came over from the Senate, Emerson guided it to the Education Committee, where it rightfully belonged under House Rule 6.6(F)(13). She carried it herself on the floor, and LARS 25:225 is now law, defining what content is inappropriate for children’s library sections.

Defending Life Before Dobbs

Julie Emerson’s defense of Louisiana families didn’t stop at education or libraries. In 2022 — before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade — she carried Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews’ SB342 in the House, Louisiana’s landmark pro-life “trigger law.”

The bill ensured that if Dobbs returned abortion policy to the states, Louisiana would immediately prohibit the procedure except to save the life of the mother. Emerson not only guided the legislation through the House but also fought off a flurry of amendments aimed at weakening it or carving out new exceptions.

Her calm, disciplined handling of the debate preserved the bill’s intent and helped it pass with broad support. When the Supreme Court ruling finally came, Louisiana was one of the first states fully prepared for the post-Roe world — thanks in no small part to Julie Emerson’s steady leadership.

Lowering Income Tax

Mississippi made headlines for “eliminating” its income tax — except it didn’t. Lawmakers there passed a plan that gradually trims rates over 30 years. Julie Emerson aimed higher. During the 2024 third extraordinary session, she authored HB1 to cut Louisiana’s individual income tax cap from 4.5% to 3%, and HB2 to drop the corporate rate from 7.5% to 5%. Both bills had momentum — until fiscal politics got in the way.

At the same time, HB10, a proposal to increase and extend the state sales tax by 1 cent, was also moving. The bill kept Louisiana’s total rate at 5¢ instead of letting it fall back to 4¢ when the temporary 0.45¢ tax expired. Legislative leadership saw the measure as a way to balance the books — but conservatives saw it as a tax hike.

That’s where the maneuvering began. Portions of Emerson’s income-tax language were folded into the sales-tax bill to create what leadership called a “comprehensive tax-reform package.” Emerson never attached her name to the final product — a quiet but unmistakable stand for principle.

The measure ultimately passed, restoring the full penny of sales tax while locking in income tax rate reductions. Emerson’s restraint earned her quiet respect among fiscal conservatives who valued principle over political expedience.

There’s So Much More

This article could go on for pages about the battles Julie Emerson has fought and the reforms she’s shepherded through the legislature. But her real legacy isn’t measured in bill numbers — it’s in the way she works. She doesn’t seek headlines or pick fights for sport. She builds coalitions, studies the details, and gets the job done. Her colleagues like working with her because she’s generous with credit and stingy with drama. She’ll gladly let someone else take the victory lap if it means the policy itself crosses the finish line.

That quiet effectiveness has made her one of the most respected conservatives in Baton Rouge. Over the last decade, she’s been the steady hand behind some of Louisiana’s most consequential reforms — from life and tax policy to education freedom and protecting children in public libraries. Even beyond the Capitol, her strategic touch has shaped conservative victories statewide — most notably helping Nancy Landry win her race for Secretary of State, even when many of the state’s power brokers said it wasn’t possible.

Now, as she sets her sights on the U.S. Senate, the rest of Louisiana is discovering what insiders have known for years: you don’t just hear about Julie Emerson — you see the results.