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 Brownfield, Pride, Watson, Central, Walker, Baker, and a portion of Zachary within Livingston or East Baton Rouge parishes.

Contents

• Valarie hodges
• Declaration of Independence discussion Part 2
• Controversy
• References

Politically allied with U.S. Senator David Vitter, 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).

Hodges carried the support of the Tea Party movement. She also won the support of then Governor Bobby Jindal.

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.

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. ..."

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.