who is clay higgins

Clay Higgins is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District and a former law enforcement officer who became nationally known for hard-edged “Crime Stoppers” videos before entering politics.

Basic profile

• Full name: Glen Clay Higgins.

• Born: August 24, 1961, in Lafayette, Louisiana.

• Current role: U.S. Representative for Louisiana’s 3rd District (in office since January 2017). The district covers much of southwestern Louisiana, including areas around Lafayette and Lake Charles.

• Party: Republican.

Background and career

• Higgins served in the Military Police Corps of the Louisiana National Guard, reaching the rank of staff sergeant, before working in private-sector jobs such as car dealership management.

• He later moved into local law enforcement, serving with the Port Barre Police Department and then the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, where he became public information officer and a captain.

“Cajun John Wayne” and viral videos

• Higgins gained national attention through dramatic Crime Stoppers segments in St. Landry Parish in which he directly addressed and sometimes taunted criminal suspects, urging them to surrender; this earned him the nickname “Cajun John Wayne.”

• Those videos were praised by some locals as tough on crime but criticized by civil-liberties advocates and his own sheriff as unprofessional and demeaning, which ultimately contributed to his resignation from the sheriff’s office in 2016.

Political career and positions

• After leaving the sheriff’s office, Higgins ran for Congress in 2016 and won the runoff for Louisiana’s 3rd District; he has since been reelected multiple times.

• In Congress, he has aligned with the pro-Trump wing of the Republican Party, serving on committees such as Homeland Security and Oversight and often emphasizing border security, law enforcement support, and socially conservative views.

Controversies and online reputation

• Higgins has repeatedly attracted controversy over social media posts that critics say flirt with or explicitly invoke violent rhetoric; some of his posts have been removed by platforms for violating policies against incitement.

• In 2025, he drew further criticism for posts suggesting he would use federal power and pressure platforms and institutions to punish Americans who, in his view, “belittled” the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, including talk of lifetime social-media bans, revoking driving privileges, and expelling students who “celebrated” the killing.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.