Chris Broadwater

Christopher D. Broadwater, known as Chris Broadwater (born March 22, 1972), is an attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 86, which encompasses within Tangipahoa Parish the communities of Independence, Tickfaw, Natalbany, and northwestern Hammond, Broadwater's own city of residence. Broadwater won the seat in a low-turnout general election held on November 19, 2011. Broadwater defeated fellow Republican George Holton, 2,800 (56.9 percent) to 2,125 (43.2 percent).^[1]

A native of Saint Francisville in West Feliciana Parish,^[2] Broadwater listed the key campaign issues in 2011 as economic development and education. He claimed that his private sector experience and his work as the former director of the office of workers compensation would give him an early advantage as a legislator. Broadwater promised to pursue a balanced state budget. As the former head of a state agency, he developed and managed a $62 million departmental budget during the first term of Governor Bobby Jindal.^[3]

Louisiana Representative (House District 86) Chris Broadwater (left) on June 4, 2014, with Tangipahoa Parish Board of Election Supervisors member David Ramsey at a reception for legislators hosted by the Hammond Chamber of Commerce in Southeastern Louisiana University's War Memorial Student Union.

Broadwater won the seat vacated by the term-limited Speaker Jim Tucker in a low-turnout general election held on November 19, 2011. Tucker himself ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana Secretary of State but lost to incumbent Tom Schedler. District 86 had been relocated after the 2010 United States Census. The "District 86" represented by Tucker was south of Lake Pontchartrain, but Broadwater's constituency was entirely north of the Lake. (The area south of the Lake had lost population because of Hurricane Katrina.)

Broadwater is a 1995 graduate of Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville. He graduated in 1998 from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2002, he received his Juris Doctor from the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge.^[3]

Broadwater and his wife, the former Hilaria Nelson of Franklinton in Washington Parish have three daughters—Emma Grace, Rose Kathron, and Maggie Frances.^[3] The Broadwaters are members of First Presbyterian Church of Hammond.

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