Valarie Hodges

Valarie Dawn Hope Hodges (born March 12, 1955) is a businesswoman from Denham Springs in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 64. In addition to Denham Springs, Hodges represents the communities of Brownsfield, Pride, Watson, Central, Walker, Baker, and a portion of Zachary within Livingston or East Baton Rouge parishes.^[1]

Politically allied with U.S. Senator David Vitter,^[2] Hodges was elected in 2011 to succeed fellow Republican Representative Bodi White, who instead was elected to the revamped District 6 seat in the Louisiana State Senate to succeed Julie Quinn, who did not seek reelection. Hodges defeated fellow Republican Barry Elkins in the primary election held on October 22, 2011. She received 7,145 votes (69.1 percent) to Elkins' 3,194 (30.9 percent).^[3]

Hodges carried the support of the Tea Party movement.^[4] She also won the support of then Governor Bobby Jindal.^[5]

Hodges is one of the eight members of the executive committee of the Republican State Executive Committee. She is a past president of the Livingston Parish Republican Women's Club. She met her husband, Leland M. Hodges, at Central High School, from which they graduated. The couple was wed in 1972 in the Amite Baptist Church in Watson. They have three children, Michael Leland Hodges (born 1974), and Kellie Nicole Hodges (born 1980). The Hodgeses jointly own and operate two small businesses. ^[2]

For eighteen years, Hodges was a missionary — her husband is a pastor. She recalls that their travels to the Third World have shown "the poverty that accompanies socialistic societies such as Cuba and Mexico. This experience gives me a passionate desire to fight socialism in America by working hard to elect conservatives at every level of government and to implement pro-business and pro-job creation policies. ..."^[1]

As of 2012, the Hodgeses had three grandchildren. Hodges' namesake granddaughter (daughter of Michael Hodges) drowned in 2009 at the age of ten in the Amite River behind her house in Port Vincent, Louisiana. The child was reported to have been a very strong swimmer.^[6]

Controversy

Hodges supported Governor Jindal in the push for a school voucher program that would allow state funds to be used to pay for religious schools, saying, "I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools."

"Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion... We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana."^[7]

References