Tanner Daniel Magee (born July 1980) is a criminal defense

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

from downtown Houma in Terrebonne Parish in south

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 ...

, who is served as a Republican member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (; ) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 representatives, each of whom represents approximately 4 ...

for District 53. On January 11, 2016, he succeeded fellow Republican Lenar Whitney, whom he unseated in the

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

held on November 21, 2015. He was re-elected in the primaries on October 12, 2019, having no challengers. On January 13, 2020 he became Speaker pro tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives, a position he held until 2024.

Political career

In the

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

held on October 24, 2015, Magee led Lenar Whitney by nine votes, 3,073 (34.35 percent) to her 3,064 (34.25 percent). The lone Democratic candidate, Brenda Leroux Babin, polled the remaining but critical 2,809 ballots (31.4 percent). In the second round of balloting in conjunction with the victory of the Democrat

John Bel Edwards John Bel Edwards (born September 16, 1966) is an American politician, attorney, and Army veteran who served as the 56th governor of Louisiana from 2016 to 2024. A Southern Democrat, he previously served in the Louisiana House of Representatives ...

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

over

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

David Vitter David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Louisiana from 2005 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Vitter served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999 ...

, Magee toppled Whitney, 4,978 votes (60.8 percent) to 3,206 votes (39.2 percent). A particularly

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

politician, Whitney was among the defeated candidates in the 2014 race for Louisiana's 6th congressional district seat, won by another Republican, Garret Graves, who succeeded

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 physician who was instead elected to the other U. S. Senate previously held by the

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Democrat

Mary Landrieu Mary Loretta Landrieu ( ; born November 23, 1955) is an American entrepreneur and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Landrieu served as the Louisiana State Treasu ...

. District 53 encompasses Broadmoor, Lisa Park, Old Houma, East Houma, Bourg, Montegut, Point-Aux-Chenes, and Chauvin. Early in 2016, Magee joined a 76-28 House majority to support legislation by Representative Katrina Jackson, a Democrat from West Monroe, that increases the state

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

by one cent over eighteen months, beginning April 1, 2016. It was later increased to twenty-seven months to extend through June 30, 2018. Joining Magee in support of the bill were area lawmakers Democrat Jerry "Truck" Gisclair of Larose and Republican Jerome Zeringue of Houma. Voting against the bill were his area colleagues,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Dee Richard of Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish and Republican Beryl Amedee of

Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

in Terrebonne Parish. On July 12, 2022, Magee announced that he was running for

Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal The Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal are the intermediate appellate courts for the state of Louisiana. There are five circuits, each covering a different group of parishes. Each circuit is subdivided into three districts. As with the Louis ...

District 1, Division D, but was defeated in the November 8 general election by Lafourche Parish district judge Stephen Miller.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Magee, Tanner 1980 births Living people Louisiana lawyers Louisiana State University Law Center alumni People from Houma, Louisiana Republican Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature