45 Facts About Clay Higgins

Glen Clay Higgins was born on August 24,1961 and is an American politician and reserve law enforcement officer from the state of Louisiana.

Clay Higgins won the runoff election on December 10,2016, defeating fellow Republican Scott Angelle.

Clay Higgins has appeared and spoken at events organized by fringe, anti-government militia groups such as the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers.

Clay Higgins was born in New Orleans, and his family moved to Covington, Louisiana, when he was six years old.

At age 18, Clay Higgins enlisted in the Military Police Corps of the Louisiana National Guard, serving for six years and reaching the rank of staff sergeant.

Clay Higgins worked for several years as a manager of car dealerships.

In 2004, Clay Higgins became a patrol officer for the Opelousas City police department.

In September 2016, during his congressional campaign, Clay Higgins claimed to have resigned from the police force for other reasons, calling Gallow "a peacock, a colorful, flightless bird".

Clay Higgins worked for the Port Barre police department through 2010.

Clay Higgins first used standard scripts, but began to improvise in his own style, appealing to suspects to surrender and sometimes threatening them by name.

Clay Higgins's videos went viral, and in 2015 he was described by national media as the "Cajun John Wayne" for his intimidating persona.

Sheriff Bobby Guidroz urged restraint, advising Clay Higgins to refrain from personal comments about suspects and to keep a professional tone in his videos.

Clay Higgins made a video for the state police, with a script that prompted protests from suspects' families and the ACLU.

Clay Higgins resigned from the St Landry Parish sheriff's office in February 2016.

Clay Higgins issued a statement saying that Higgins's comments underlined "a growing undertone of insubordination and lack of discipline on Higgins' part".

Guidroz said that Clay Higgins had gone against department policy by misusing his badge and uniform for personal profit and gain, citing Clay Higgins's wearing a uniform in an ad for a security firm.

Clay Higgins reprimanded Higgins for using his badge and uniform on his personal website to support sales of T-shirts and shot glasses for his limited liability corporation.

Clay Higgins had used the department's physical address in registering his corporation with the state.

In one email, Clay Higgins discussed his request for a speaker's fee that included shopping money for his wife and part of the fuel for a friend's private plane.

Clay Higgins appears to have attempted to conceal his earnings from the IRS in order to avoid wage garnishment for unpaid taxes.

Shortly after resigning from St Landry Parish, in March 2016, Clay Higgins was accepted and sworn in as a reserve deputy marshal in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana.

In 2019, Clay Higgins retired his commission as a reserve deputy marshal.

Clay Higgins maintains an active law enforcement commission as a reserve officer with the Louisiana attorney general's office.

Clay Higgins was awarded the title of Kentucky colonel in March 2016 by Kentucky governor Matt Bevin.

May 17,2023, Clay Higgins was recorded shoving, grabbing and moving a protester during an event in Washington DC.

In May 2016, Clay Higgins declared his candidacy in the 2016 election in the 3rd district.

Clay Higgins crossed district lines to run for this seat, as his home in Port Barre is in the neighboring 5th district.

Clay Higgins was challenged by Democrats Rob Anderson, Mildred "Mimi" Methvin, Larry Rader, and Verone Thomas, Libertarian Aaron Andrus, and Republican Josh Guillory.

Clay Higgins defeated all six challengers in the jungle primary, winning reelection without a runoff.

Clay Higgins was sworn into the House of Representatives on January 3,2017.

Clay Higgins has claimed to sleep on an air mattress on the floor of his Capitol Hill office.

Clay Higgins voted with other Republicans in favor of the American Health Care Act of 2017, which would have repealed and replaced major portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In December 2017, Clay Higgins voted with other Republicans in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Clay Higgins is anti-abortion and has compared women choosing to terminate their pregnancy to the Holocaust.

In 2018, Clay Higgins commented on his Facebook page about a New York Times op-ed by retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that called for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

Clay Higgins says he believes that states should have the right to ban same-sex marriage, contrary to the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v Hodges.

Clay Higgins has promoted himself and spoken at rallies by anti-government militia groups.

Clay Higgins included a picture of Black militia members at a protest.

In December 2020, Higgins was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump.

In May 2020 CNN interview, Clay Higgins described face masks as a "bacteria trap" and said they did not help to slow the spread of COVID-19, noting that he did not believe they were effective as smells are able to pass through them.

In early July 2017, Clay Higgins posted a five-minute video on YouTube from Auschwitz concentration camp, including a section from within one of the gas chambers.

Clay Higgins said, "This is why homeland security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible".

On September 1,2020, Clay Higgins posted a photograph of protesters at a Black Lives Matter protest in Louisiana, suggesting that armed demonstrators should be met with force to "eliminate the threat".

Clay Higgins adopted her child from a previous marriage, and they had two more children together.

Clay Higgins said that he sought reduced payments in 2005 after changing careers to law enforcement, but the issue was never settled.