WWNO/WRKF reached out to all candidates, asking them to answer questions on hot-button issues like coastal restoration, data centers, regulation of AI and more. Only three of them responded. You can read their answers below.
The following candidates responded to a questionnaire sent by WWNO/WRKF:
John Day (D)
- Lake Charles
- johndayforcongress.com
Abortion/Reproductive health
I believe reproductive healthcare decisions belong to a woman, her family, her faith, and her doctor—not politicians. I support restoring federal protections for reproductive freedom while recognizing that reasonable people have deeply held moral and religious beliefs on this issue. The government should focus on reducing unwanted pregnancies, improving maternal healthcare, supporting mothers and children, and making adoption and contraception accessible.
Carbon Capture Sequestration and Eminent Domain
I oppose the current push to turn South Louisiana into a massive carbon-storage site, particularly when private companies can use eminent domain to take or burden private property. I also oppose spending billions in federal tax subsidies under 45Q to make these projects profitable. Louisiana should not be asked to assume the environmental and long-term liability while corporations collect the subsidy.
Coastal restoration work in LA
Absolutely essential. Coastal restoration is not simply an environmental issue—it is about hurricane protection, fisheries, communities, energy infrastructure and the economic future of South Louisiana. Louisiana produces enormous economic value for this country, and protecting our coast should be treated as a national infrastructure priority.
Data Centers
I am not opposed to technology or economic development. I am opposed to giant industrial projects receiving special treatment while Louisiana families pay the consequences through higher utility costs, enormous water and energy consumption, pollution, or weakened environmental protections. If a data center wants to operate here, it should prove that it benefits the community and pay its own way.
Federal Regulation of AI
Yes, but intelligently. Congress should establish national rules protecting privacy, children, consumers and intellectual property and requiring accountability for dangerous uses of AI. At the same time, we should avoid regulations so burdensome that only the largest technology companies can afford to comply. AI is going to transform the economy; the government needs to protect Americans without preventing American innovation.
FEMA reform
FEMA needs major reform. After working in hurricane recovery and living through disasters myself, I have seen how slow, confusing and bureaucratic the system can become. Disaster survivors should not have to become experts in federal bureaucracy to rebuild their lives. I support faster payments, simpler appeals, greater transparency, tougher oversight of contractors, and reforms to disaster housing and mitigation programs. FEMA should work for disaster victims—not make disaster victims work for FEMA.
Immigration enforcement
We need a secure border and we need immigration laws that are actually enforced. We also need a functioning legal immigration system. I support targeting cartels, human traffickers, violent offenders and people who pose genuine security threats. I do not support treating every immigrant as a criminal or ripping otherwise law-abiding families apart simply to produce deportation statistics. Secure the border, enforce the law, fix legal immigration, and provide a reasonable earned process for people who have lived peacefully and productively in our communities.
Offshore drilling for oil and gas
I support responsible offshore oil and gas development. Louisiana workers have powered this country for generations, and oil and gas will remain an important part of America’s energy mix for decades. I also believe the industry must operate safely, protect our fisheries and coast, and ensure Louisiana receives a fair share of the economic benefit generated off our shores. Energy production and environmental responsibility are not mutually exclusive.
Should members of Congress be prohibited from owning/trading stock?
Members of Congress should be prohibited from trading individual stocks while serving in office. They receive information and influence policy in ways ordinary investors do not. Members and their immediate families should be limited to diversified funds, retirement accounts, blind trusts or similar investments. Public service should never become an opportunity to trade on public information or political influence.
Should elected officials be allowed to sign NDAs?
Not when an NDA prevents disclosure of information the public has a legitimate right to know about an elected official’s conduct or public business. Public officials work for the public. An NDA should never become a tool for concealing misconduct, corruption, harassment or government activity from taxpayers.
If you’ve held office before, what legislation are you most proud of and why?
I have not previously held elected office. I am running precisely because I believe Congress needs more people who have lived and worked in the real world rather than making elected office a career.
What will be your top three priorities in office?
- Lower the cost of living and rebuild economic security. Healthcare, insurance, housing, groceries and utilities are crushing working families. I’ll focus on competition, affordability, good-paying jobs and stopping taxpayer money from becoming corporate welfare.
- Protect South Louisiana. That means coastal restoration, hurricane protection, affordable and available homeowners insurance, responsible energy development, and protecting our land and water from projects that leave communities carrying the risk while corporations take the profit.
- Restore accountability in Washington. Ban congressional stock trading, strengthen ethics and transparency laws, attack waste and corruption, and make federal agencies—including FEMA—answer to the people they are supposed to serve.
My basic philosophy is pretty simple: listen to everybody and work for everyone. I won’t agree with every person in Louisiana’s 3rd District on every issue, and I don’t expect them to agree with me. But they should always know where I stand, why I stand there, and that I’ll stand up for them whether they voted for me or not.
Priscilla Gonzalez (D)
- Lafayette
- prisforcongress.com
Abortion/Reproductive health
I believe reproductive healthcare decisions should remain between a woman, her doctor, and her family—not politicians. I support protecting access to essential reproductive healthcare and ensuring women receive timely, affordable medical care, including prenatal care, contraception, and treatment for pregnancy complications. I also believe we must support mothers and families by expanding access to healthcare, childcare, and economic resources. The government should protect women’s health and dignity while respecting the complexity of individual circumstances.
Carbon Capture Sequestration and Eminent Domain
Louisiana should pursue economic development and new technologies without sacrificing the rights of landowners or the safety of our communities. Carbon capture and sequestration may have a role in reducing emissions, but projects must have strong environmental safeguards, transparency, monitoring, and accountability. I oppose using eminent domain as a shortcut to silence property owners. Landowners deserve due process, fair compensation, and a meaningful voice before projects move forward. If elected, I will support legislation that puts property rights, public safety, and environmental protection at the center of carbon-storage policy.
Coastal restoration work in LA
Louisiana's coast is disappearing, threatening communities, homes, wildlife, jobs, and our economy. Coastal restoration must be treated as a national priority because Louisiana's wetlands protect not only our state, but critical energy infrastructure, ports, fisheries, and the Gulf Coast economy. I will fight for sustained federal investment in coastal restoration, hurricane protection, wetland creation, marsh restoration, sediment diversion, and other science-based projects. We need long-term funding and accountability—not temporary attention after every disaster.
Data Centers
Louisiana should welcome economic development while protecting the people who live here. Data centers can bring jobs and investment, but they can also create significant demands for electricity and water and may affect surrounding communities. Congress cannot simply order every data center project to stop because land-use and many permitting decisions are controlled by state and local governments. However, as a member of Congress, I can fight for federal environmental standards, transparency, infrastructure planning, and responsible use of federal incentives. Economic development should never mean giving corporations a blank check at taxpayers' expense.
Federal Regulation of AI
Artificial intelligence is developing faster than government policy, and Congress must establish reasonable guardrails without preventing innovation. I support federal standards for privacy, cybersecurity, transparency, consumer protection, and accountability when AI is used by the government or businesses. Americans should know when significant decisions affecting their employment, finances, healthcare, or rights are being made with AI. We also need to protect critical infrastructure and national security while investing in education and workforce development so Louisiana workers can participate in the technology economy rather than be left behind.
FEMA reform
FEMA needs to work for disaster victims—not make people fight through layers of bureaucracy while their homes and lives are falling apart. Louisiana knows the devastating impact of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and other disasters. I support streamlining applications, speeding up assistance, improving communication, strengthening fraud prevention, and giving communities greater flexibility to recover. We should also invest more heavily in mitigation before disasters occur because every dollar spent making communities more resilient can reduce future losses. Disaster survivors deserve a federal government that responds with urgency, compassion, and accountability.
Immigration enforcement
Our immigration system is broken, and the federal government has a responsibility to enforce the law while treating people with dignity and respect. I support securing the border, targeting dangerous criminals and human-trafficking networks, and improving enforcement against those who pose a genuine threat to public safety. At the same time, we need a functioning legal immigration system and a practical process for people who have been in this country for years and are contributing to their communities. Immigration policy should be firm, orderly, humane, and enforceable—not driven by chaos or political extremes.
Offshore drilling for oil and gas
Louisiana is an energy-producing state, and our workers and communities should not be forgotten in America's energy policy. I support responsible offshore oil and gas production while demanding strong environmental protections, worker safety, and accountability for companies operating in the Gulf. Louisiana also has an enormous opportunity to lead in emerging energy technologies. We should protect existing energy jobs while preparing workers for the energy economy of the future. Energy policy must balance affordability, energy security, economic opportunity, and protection of our coast.
Should members of Congress be prohibited from owning/trading stock?
Yes. Members of Congress should not be trading individual stocks while making laws that can directly affect companies and industries. The appearance—or reality—of a conflict of interest undermines public confidence. I support prohibiting members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from trading individual stocks while in office, with appropriate requirements for diversified investments or blind trusts. Public office should be about serving the public, not creating opportunities for personal financial gain.
Should elected officials be allowed to sign NDAs?
Elected officials should not be able to use NDAs to conceal misconduct, corruption, conflicts of interest, or information that the public has a legitimate right to know. There are legitimate circumstances involving classified information, personnel matters, or legally protected information where confidentiality is necessary. But secrecy should never be used to protect elected officials from accountability. I support strong transparency and whistleblower protections so the government operates in the public interest.
If you’ve held office before, what legislation are you most proud of and why?
While I have not previously held elected office, I took part in advocating for the PACT Act, which remains one of my proudest moments. My primary commitment is listening to the people of Louisiana District 3 and bringing their concerns directly into the legislative process. I believe public service should be measured by results, integrity, and whether we make life better for the people we represent. If elected, I intend to build a record of legislation that delivers meaningful results for working families, seniors, veterans, small businesses, and our communities. Furthermore, I commit to donating $20,000 of my Congressional salary back to the community, allowing citizens to decide where those funds are best utilized.
What will be your top three priorities in office?
- Lowering the Cost of Living: I will work to make housing, healthcare, energy, groceries, and other necessities more affordable while protecting Social Security and Medicare, addressing tax burdens, working with insurance companies to lower costs, and raising the federal minimum wage.
- Protecting and Rebuilding Louisiana: I will fight for coastal restoration, stronger disaster preparedness, affordable insurance, resilient infrastructure, and federal resources for communities recovering from disasters.
- Creating Opportunity and Protecting Families: I will support good-paying jobs, small businesses, workforce development, affordable healthcare, public safety, and responsible economic development. Louisiana families deserve a representative who listens, works across the aisle, and puts people ahead of political games.
Caleb "With a C" Walker (D)
- Lafayette
- Campaign focuses on veteran support, community safety, economic growth, and workforce development
- Caleb Walker for Congress | Louisiana's 3rd District
Abortion/Reproductive health
I trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and their own healthcare, in consultation with their doctor, their family, and their faith — not with politicians in Washington. That's a matter of personal freedom and privacy I believe in strongly, and it shouldn't be a partisan football. What Congress should actually be doing is making healthcare affordable and accessible for Louisiana families in the first place, especially in rural parishes where too many people already drive an hour just to see a doctor.
Carbon Capture Sequestration and Eminent Domain
Louisiana has always been an energy state, and carbon capture can be part of our economic future if it's done right. But it has to be done with landowners, not to them. I do not support using eminent domain to force carbon capture projects onto private property against a landowner's wishes. Property rights are not negotiable, and any project that wants to operate in our communities needs to earn consent, pay fair value, and be transparent about the risks — not lean on the government to take land by force.
Coastal restoration work in LA
Protecting our coastline is protecting our way of life, and it's one of my top priorities. Louisiana loses a football field of land roughly every hour and a half, and in the 3rd District that means saltwater intrusion into our farmland, disappearing wetlands that used to buffer our towns from storms, and families in places like Morgan City and Franklin watching the water get closer every year. I support fully and reliably funding Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan, defending our GOMESA offshore revenue sharing so the state actually gets its fair share of oil and gas dollars for coastal work, and cutting the federal permitting delays that slow restoration projects down for years while our coast keeps eroding.
Data Centers
Data centers can bring real jobs and investment to Louisiana, and I'm not against that. But I will not support economic growth that gets built on the backs of higher electric and water bills for everyday families. Before a data center gets a green light, its power and water use needs to be planned for so it doesn't drive up costs or strain the grid for the households and small businesses already here. Growth should lower costs for Louisiana families, not create a new bill they didn't sign up for.
Federal Regulation of AI
AI is moving fast, and Congress has been slow — that's a dangerous combination. I support common-sense federal guardrails that protect people's jobs, protect their personal data and privacy, and protect the truth, especially around deepfakes and election disinformation. At the same time, I don't want to see regulation so heavy-handed that it kills innovation and the jobs that come with it. We need rules that protect people first, written by people who actually understand the technology — not a knee-jerk reaction and not a rubber stamp.
FEMA reform
As a veteran who spent a career depending on logistics that had to work when it counted, I know the difference between a plan and a plan that actually reaches people. FEMA reform is personal to Louisiana — we have lived through the paperwork delays, the denied claims that get overturned on appeal months later, and the aid that shows up after families have already rebuilt on their own. I support real reform: faster disbursement timelines, pre-positioned resources ahead of storms instead of after, real accountability for contractors, and cutting the red tape that makes people wait for help they're already entitled to.
Immigration enforcement
We need a system that is both secure and fair, and right now we don't have either. I support enforcing our laws and prioritizing the removal of violent criminals, while building a legal immigration and worker pathway that actually functions — one that recognizes Louisiana's agriculture, seafood, and service industries depend on a reliable legal workforce. This isn't about fear; it's about order, fairness, and treating people with basic human dignity while we fix a system that has been broken for decades under both parties.
Offshore drilling for oil and gas
Energy jobs built the 3rd District, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I support responsible offshore drilling that keeps Louisiana families working, paired with strong environmental safeguards and full GOMESA revenue sharing so a real share of that offshore revenue comes home to fund our coastal restoration instead of disappearing into Washington. Protecting our energy jobs and protecting our coast are not opposites — Louisiana can't afford to choose one over the other, and I won't ask our families to.
Should members of Congress be prohibited from owning/trading stock?
Yes. Members of Congress and their spouses should not be allowed to trade individual stocks while in office. People sent to Washington to serve the public shouldn't be using classified briefings or insider knowledge of upcoming legislation to grow their own portfolios. It's a basic accountability issue, and it's one of the clearest ways Congress can start rebuilding trust with the people it represents.
Should elected officials be allowed to sign NDAs?
No, not when it comes to their public conduct in office. An elected official works for the public, and the public has a right to know how that official has behaved, how public money was spent, and whether misconduct occurred. NDAs that shield elected officials from accountability have no place in public service. Transparency isn't optional for people who asked for the public's trust.
If you’ve held office before, what legislation are you most proud of and why?
I haven't held elected office before — this is my first run for Congress. What I bring instead is more than two decades of real leadership and service: ten years as a U.S. Army Sergeant First Class, medically retired after service that included a deployment to Afghanistan; running the top-ranked department out of more than 600 Sam's Club locations nationwide; and serving on Louisiana's Task Force on Career Alignment. I've spent my career being the person accountable for results, not just talking points — and that's the standard I'll hold myself to in Congress.
What will be your top three priorities in office?
- Affordability — lowering the cost of insurance, healthcare, and everyday life for Louisiana families, because that's the issue I hear about in every parish, every day.
- Taking care of the people who take care of us — our veterans, our teachers, our healthcare workers, and our first responders, the people who show up for everyone else and too often get left behind.
- Protecting our land and our future — our coast, our farmland, and our way of life, so our kids inherit a Louisiana that's still here. Let's build our CommUNITY.
The following candidates did not respond to a questionnaire sent by WWNO/WRKF:
Congressman Clay Higgins (R)
- Incumbent candidate; Higgins has represented the 3rd Congressional District since 2017
- Lafayette
- captainhiggins.com
“Kate” Cotten (R)
- Lake Charles
Tia LeBrun (No Party)
- Sulphur
- lebrun4la.com
