We need to start treating each other better in America.

A Brighter Future for Louisiana

Jessee Carlton Fleenor is a new generation of Democrat. A local farmer and father of three who believes we need to rediscover our sense of honesty, kindness & community that are at the heart of what it means to be from the great state of Louisiana.

Vote for Jessee and let’s put the American family back at the heart of our policy discussions.

Louisiana’s 5th spans 24 parishes…

From Bogalusa to Bastrop, Grambling to Lake Providence, and from the Twin Cities of Monroe all the way through Opelousas, by way of Alexandria / Pineville. Easily one of the most gerrymandered in the history of the American republic, the absurd shape and sheer size of the district were designed to make elections less competitive.

Jessee believes that in this period of flux and re-alignment, it is up to each of us as citizens to re-evaluate the core principles on which the country was founded and rediscover the sense that we are all one American family, before we are part of one team or another. It is time to start fully appreciating the diversity of our communities and commit ourselves to taking better care of each and every member of our society.

American Reconciliation

It is the core belief of our campaign that Americans have been unnecessarily divided into camps of so called Liberals and Conservatives when the truth is that the people of Louisiana are more vibrant and dynamic than any one political label would have you believe.  We are all in this great American experiment together and owe each other the time and effort to listen and learn from one another.

Jessee Carlton Fleenor believes that no person in Louisiana deserves to be turned away from the loving arms of community and family that are so central to the people of this state.  He will work tirelessly to see that all communities in the state have a voice and feel connected to their neighbors through new public works, community reinforcement and a much more honest dialogue about the issues we face together.

Universal Healthcare

Our campaign believes in the right of all people, regardless of their financial situation, to go to the doctor when they are sick. Period. We fully support Governor John Bel Edwards' courageous decision to expand Medicaid in our state, helping to basically save the lives of close to 400,000 working people in the state since 2016 and dropping Louisiana's uninsured rate by a full 9 percentage points, further contributing to the unsung success story of the over 25 million Americans who have gained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

While defending Medicaid & Medicare from budget-cutting millionaires is a top priority for Jessee's campaign, it is not enough to stop there. Combat Veterans and Seniors are all too often unable to get the proper care they need, in spite of the VA & Medicare. Jessee Carlton Fleenor believes that no American Senior Citizen or Combat Veteran should ever have to pay a penny out of pocket for any medical expenses. It is our responsibility as a nation to provide for those among us who have already given the most to our great state.

Diversity in Leadership

Jessee Carlton Fleenor believes that what we need in Washington is a diverse group of leaders, more accurately representative of our great American community at large.  Leaders who come from communities all over the country with fresh ideas and new ways of looking at the issues.  Together with this new wave of American lawmakers, Jessee looks to change the conversation from one dominated by difference and distrust to a Washington where a whole cohort of believers in the power of progress and diversity can come together for the good of all Americans.

Specifically Jessee is a strong believer that we need more women in politics and in positions of power more generally.  If elected Jessee will set-up a young leaders forum in Louisiana's 5th district, offering opportunities for leadership and policy development to the future leaders of our great state of Louisiana.  

Environmental
Realism

Jessee believes that it is our responsibility as a community of farmers and fishermen to take the threat of climate change seriously.  In a state that is already suffering from increased extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heat waves, we cannot afford to pretend like the world is not getting hotter each year.  Louisiana farmers are already suffering from decreased vegetable, milk and beef yields due to higher temperatures and increased pest populations.  Left unchecked, coastal erosion due to rising sea levels will only complicate the situation.

Instead of focusing on who is to blame for global warming, Jessee Carlton Fleenor believes we should work together as a state to come up with bold initiatives to cut back on carbon pollution and increase economic opportunity in communities previously dependent on fossil fuel extraction.  Specifically Jessee believes we need new national investments in sustainable energy programs, with special concentration of investments in the states historically dependent on energy production, such as Louisiana, Texas and the Appalachian south.  

Raises for Teachers

Both of Jessee Fleenor's parents were educators and both of his children attend public schools here in Louisiana.  He believes we need to do better by the children and teachers of our great state.  All across the nation schools are reporting teacher shortages in key subject areas like math and science and the tirelessly overworked teachers we do have report twice the levels of stress of most other groups of workers.

Jessee believes we need to awaken a new national movement of respect and engagement with our teaching communities.  We need to listen to what our teachers are saying and give them the resources to do this most important of all jobs right.  Instead of trillion dollar corporate tax cuts we need real government policy, for the people, that pumps those same trillions out of bloated corporations and into our schools in the form of books, supplies and long overdue pay increases for the teachers of America's children.

A Farm Bill that works for Small & Medium Farmers

Jessee was born and raised on a Louisiana farm and makes his living as a small business owner, farming vegetables, eggs, beef and milk, and working with three generations of his family on the Fleenor family farm.  As in so many other areas of government policy, Jessee believes we need to refocus our efforts on helping regular working families and small business owners get up and running, instead of focusing so much of our budget on subsidies for mega farms and millionaires. We don't want a modern plantation system in this state, we want more small to medium sized family farms.

When crops are are bought and sold locally in grocery stores and farmers markets all across this state, that money goes right back into the local economy, helping to make farming once again a viable profession that does not require huge capital expenditures on the front end.  The more chaotic the issue of global trade tariffs becomes under this administration, the less of a chance the regular farmers in the small-towns of America have to break even, much less get and stay ahead.  What we need is a farm bill that refocuses on the needs of the small to medium American farmer, to help create a new agricultural revolution in America, where regular people can return to a quality life on their own land.

An End to Gerrymandering

In an effort to heal the deep divisions growing ever wider in our culture, it is imperative that we take the redistricting process out of the hands of the very elected officials that stand to gain, whether democrat or republican, and form new non-partisan technocratic civic institutions to draw fair contiguous districts that promote centrism and competitiveness in our democratic process. 

Criminal Justice Reform

In a state that locks up more of its own citizens than any other in the union, it is beyond time that we make pragmatic changes to the way we handle criminal justice in this state, from a more public health driven approach to non-violent drug offenses, an elimination of the unethical cash bail system, to a hard and fast limit on how long someone can be held in jail without trail before a case is outright dismissed.  The constitution sets a higher bar for stripping rights away from our fellow citizens and every time we unnecessarily lock someone up for a non-violent offence we are splitting up a family from our own Louisiana community, further cementing the age old cycle of crime and poverty.  

Net Neutrality

Jessee supports every effort to keep the internet a free and open platform without the corrupting influence of multinational corporations making sweetheart deals with one another to the great detriment of the American consumer.  The internet should be kept safe and free.

Campaign Finance Reform

It is essential that we do a better job electing representatives that are reflective of the districts they purport to represent.  Well over half of current US congressional representatives are millionaires, a statistic that is particularly painful to stomach in Louisiana, where the overwhelming majority of individuals live on less than $40,000 / year.   There should be no millionaires in congress, until the districts they represent are made up primarily of other millionaires.  Changing the way we finance campaigns in this country would go a long way towards helping the regular American, with regular concerns, take a more active role in public life, without spending all of their time groveling to the wealthy donor class or worse, continually electing the same corrupt few with enough money to finance their own campaigns.

Addiction Recovery

Implement new approaches to address the current American opioid epidemic. We have got to allow physicians to prescribe reliable safe treatments for addiction recovery including methadone and buprenorphine, which have been proven to bring down overdose deaths by close to 40% in trial communities. As we work to remove the stigma and taboo of addiction, we should refocus on a “whole patient” approach that combines the use of these treatment with behavioral therapies and family support.

Right now any doctor can prescribe highly addictive opioid painkillers by the fistful but needs to go through special training courses to prescribe methadone and other highly effective treatments for addiction recovery. We need to reverse that dynamic and start the work of bringing down the supply of opioids prescribed and the stigma associated with dependency. Addiction is not a sign of a weak character, rather it is a physical dependency, often brought on though the over-prescription of opioids in our society.

Promote Civic Engagement

Jessee believes we should work as Americans to re-energize our shared civic culture with new forums for public discussion and problem solving. These can include a renewed focus on non-partisan journalism, more civics and comparative government classes in our primary and secondary school curriculum and by making Memorial Day once again a solemn day of reverse and historical reflection. In these and other ways we can slowly rebuild a sense of being one American people, with a shared history, a rational public discourse and a desire to constantly improve the way we make shared decisions in our American communities.