John Milkovich is an American politician and attorney from the state of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. A Democrat, Milkovich represented the 38th district of the

Louisiana State Senate The Louisiana State Senate (; ) is the upper house of Louisiana’s legislature. Senators serve four-year terms and participate in various committees. Composition The Louisiana State Senate has 39 members elected from single-member districts ...

, based in southern

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

, from 2016 until 2020.

Career

Milkovich was born and raised in Roundup,

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

, and went to the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana, United States. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. Fall 2024 saw total enrollment hit 10,811, marki ...

. After obtaining his J.D. at the

Paul M. Hebert Law Center The Paul M. Hebert Law Center, often styled "LSU Law", is a Public university, public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and located on the main campus of Louisiana State University. Because ...

, Milkovich worked as a judicial clerk for Fred C. Sexton Jr. of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Milkovich has also been an attorney at law since 1985.

Political history

Milkovich ran for

Louisiana's 4th congressional district Louisiana's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The district is located in the northwestern part of the state and is based in Shreveport, Louisiana, Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana, Bossier C ...

in 2002, losing in a landslide to Republican incumbent Jim McCrery. In

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Milkovich announced he would run for the 38th district of the

, vacated by term-limited Republican Sherri Smith Buffington. After failing to win a majority in the first round, Milkovich defeated

state representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

Richie Burford in the runoff with 52% of the vote. Milkovich was defeated in his bid for a second term in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

by Republican Barry Milligan, who won a majority in the first round.

Comments on vaccines

On April 29, 2019, during a vote on Senator Regina Barrow's legislation to expand a state immunization database, Milkovich caused controversy by repeating unscientific and debunked claims about vaccinations and autism. Among other things, Milkovich claimed that "tissue from aborted babies is now used in vaccines" and that "autism did not exist" when he and another senator were growing up, both of which have been repeatedly proven false. Although no lawmaker responded to Milkovich on the Senate floor,

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Bill Cassidy William Morgan Cassidy (born September 28, 1957) is an American physician and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from Louisiana, a seat he has held since 2015. A member of the Republic ...

, a medical doctor, later called Milkovich's comments "fake news."

Comments on 2020 Presidential Election

John Milkovich has repeatedly denied the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. Milkovich has echoed the disproven claims made by Presidential Trump that he won the election, despite nearly every judicial body that heard the claims ruling that there was not election determinative fraud.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milkovich, John Living people People from Caddo Parish, Louisiana People from Keithville, Louisiana People from Roundup, Montana Democratic Party Louisiana state senators University of Montana alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature