Ben Nevers

Background

Nevers graduated in 1964 from Bogalusa High School. In 1969, he completed his studies at the Sullivan Campus of Louisiana Technical College. Between 1965 and 1971, he served in the United States Army. Nevers is chairman of the Senate Education Committee and a member of various statewide educational committees, including the Louisiana Tuition Trust Authority, the Louisiana High School Redesign Commission, and the Blue Ribbon Commission for Educational Excellence. He is a member of the Hurricane Katrina Memorial Commission and also claims a special legislative interest in agriculture, economic development, and health care.

Nevers and his wife, the former Barbara Ann Williams, an educator, have three children and, as of 2011, six grandchildren. He is a deacon in his church.

Senate service

In the 2003 nonpartisan blanket primary for senator, which attracted seven candidates, including former State Representative Weldon Russell of Amite City in Tangipahoa Parish, Nevers was forced into a second round of balloting with the Republican Richard E. Tanner, a retired teacher from St. Tammany Parish. However, Tanner withdrew from the race on the grounds that the candidates held similar views. Subsequently Nevers was unopposed in the 2007 primary.

Considered a Conservative Democrat, Nevers in 2007 filed an anti-abortion bill, backed by outgoing Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco, that permits abortions only in situations in which a woman's life is at risk from a pregnancy. He sponsored the Louisiana Science Education Act, which permits teachers to use supplementary materials in class concerning the theory of evolution and creationism. Nevers said that the law, signed by then Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, is "strictly about teaching science in the classroom. It has nothing to do with religion. ... It shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against any particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion." In 2011, opponents of the Louisiana Science Education Act, led by state Senator Karen Carter Peterson of New Orleans, failed in an attempt to repeal the law. Some forty Nobel Prize-winning scientists endorsed the repeal of the measure on the premise that the law allows teachers to offer creationism views in classrooms.

In 1995, Nevers ran unsuccessfully for the House, having been defeated by the incumbent Democrat, later Republican, Jerry Thomas, a former Washington Parish coroner. Nevers polled 6,546 votes (42.9 percent) to Thomas's 8,713 votes (57.1 percent).

2011 reelection

Nevers was narrowly reelected in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 20, 2011. He received 15,116 votes (50.6 percent) to 14,764 (49.4 percent) for his Republican opponent, Beth Mizell.

Nevers is listed among the state and local officials who have endorsed the reelection in 2014 of Democrat U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu.

Term-limited in the state Senate, Nevers wassucceeded by his Republican former opponent, Beth Mizell, who won the seat in the general election held on November 21, 2015. Mizell easily defeated the Democrat, Mickey Murphy, 19,404 votes (58 percent) to 14,033 (42 percent). She is the only Republican to have won a formerly Democratic Senate seat in the 2015 general election. Murphy is a former teacher, counselor, welding instructor, and college dean. He formerly chaired a workforce development board. He is a former president of his local Chamber of Commerce. The operator of a preschool, Mizell opposes Nevers' long-term proposal to build a reservoir in the Senate district, a project Murphy supported in the campaign.