John Charles Cooksey, M.D. (born August 20, 1941) is an ophthalmologist who was a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 from 1997 to 2003.

Early life

Cooksey was born in Alexandria

Alexandria, Louisiana

Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....

, the seat of Rapides Parish in central Louisiana. He graduated from La Salle High School (La Salle Parish) in Olla

Olla, Louisiana

Olla is a municipality in northwest La Salle Parish, Louisiana, United States. Olla has a federally recognized downtown Historic District. The population was 1,617 at the 2010 census...

, where his father operated a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

. He attended Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...

 in Baton Rouge and received his M.D.

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 degree in 1966. Much later, in 1994, he received a Master of Business Administration

Master of Business Administration

The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...

 degree from the University of Texas in Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

. From 1967 until 1969, he was in the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

, largely in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 but briefly in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. He was in the Air Force Reserve from 1969 until 1972.

Career

He was elected to Congress in 1996 and represented Louisiana's Fifth District for three terms. Cooksey first won the seat by defeating the Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 state legislator Francis C. Thompson

Francis C. Thompson

Francis Coleman Thompson is a wealthy developer from Delhi in Richland Parish, Louisiana, U.S., where he served as a senior Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He served continuously from 1975 until 2007...

 of Delhi

Delhi, Louisiana

Delhi, originally called Deerfield, is a town in Richland Parish, Louisiana, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 3,066.-History:...

 in Richland Parish. Cooksey had edged past former U.S. Representative Clyde C. Holloway

Clyde C. Holloway

Clyde Cecil Holloway is an American small business owner from Forest Hill in the southern part of Rapides Parish who is one of five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. He also served as a conservative Republican member of the U.S...

 of Forest Hill

Forest Hill, Louisiana

Forest Hill is a village in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 456 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Forest Hill is located at ....

 in Rapides Parish in the jungle primary

Jungle primary

A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...

. In that campaign, Cooksey pledged to serve no more than three terms in the House, a pledge that he kept.

Cooksey opposed abortion

Abortion

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 as a congressman but would not support efforts to address the issue through a constitutional amendment

Constitutional amendment

A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...

. He said that the nation already had too many "federal bureaucrats

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

" making and interpreting policy, and he distrusted the use of constitutional amendments to address most public policies.

In 2002, Cooksey was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 seat still held by the Democrat Mary Landrieu

Mary Landrieu

Mary Loretta Landrieu is the senior United States Senator from the State of Louisiana and a member of the Democratic Party.Born in Arlington, Virginia, Landrieu was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana...

. In the campaign, Cooksey made a derogatory remark about Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

s — comparing turban

Turban

In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...

s to diapers fastened by fan belts — which was attacked by his opponents as racist

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

. He never overcame the blunder. In the November general election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

, the losing Republican candidate was Cooksey's intraparty rival, Suzanne Haik Terrell

Suzanne Haik Terrell

Suzanne Haik Terrell is a Louisiana lawyer who failed in a high-profile Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and for state attorney general in 2003. She was the state's last commissioner of elections, having served from 2000 to 2004. In 2005, President George W...

 of New Orleans.

In addition to the reelection of Landrieu, the Democrats temporarily regained Cooksey's House seat in the same general election balloting. Democrat Rodney Alexander

Rodney Alexander

Rodney McKinnie Alexander is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district covers twenty-two parishes in roughly the northeast quadrant of the state...

 defeated Cooksey's choice, his former aide, Dewey Lee Fletcher

Lee Fletcher

Dewey Lee Fletcher, Jr. , was an American political consultant and a talk radio host and blogger in Monroe, who was defeated by 974 votes in a 2002 race for the United States House of Representatives from the Fifth Congressional District in northeast Louisiana...

, by fewer than one thousand votes. Alexander, however, defected to the GOP

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 in 2004 and then defeated an intraparty rival, John Wyeth "Jock" Scott II

Jock Scott

John Wyeth "Jock" Scott, II was a lawyer and college professor in Alexandria, who served three terms from District 26 in the Louisiana House of Representatives, first as a Democrat and then as a Republican . He was defeated in a race for the Louisiana State Senate in 1987...

, of Alexandria for the congressional seat.

Personal life

Cooksey retired from politics and resumed his medical practice. He and his wife, the former Ann Grabill (born 1943), have three children. He is Methodist and a member of Lambda Chi Alpha

Lambda Chi Alpha

Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's secret general fraternities in North America, having initiated more than 280,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference and was founded by Warren A. Cole, while he was a...

Fraternity.