Luke Letlow died on a Tuesday, five days before he was due to be sworn into Congress. He was 41, a husband and father of two. The Louisiana Republican had been elected to the 5th District seat in a December 5 runoff against fellow Republican Lance Harris, and he never took it.
He announced his COVID-19 diagnosis on December 18. The next day he was admitted to St. Francis Medical Center, and on December 23, as he worsened, he was moved to the ICU at Ochsner LSU Health. After a COVID-related operation he suffered a heart attack. Jezebel reported that he had no known underlying health conditions. He died on December 29, 2020, the first member or member-elect of Congress to die from the pandemic, which had by then killed more than 336,000 Americans.
His family asked for privacy. His death also drew scrutiny. Jezebel noted that his social media showed him without a mask at indoor and outdoor events with prospective voters, and that in a November debate he said “we have to learn how to live in a COVID world.” How he caught the virus was never established.
His widow runs
In mid-January, after the governor called a special election to fill the empty seat, Julia Letlow entered the race. She was a university administrator who had written a doctoral dissertation on grief, and she had never run for office. Trump, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise all endorsed her, one of nine Republicans in a 12-person field.
She had a campaign team already in place, and she far outraised her opponents. In a Louisiana jungle primary, every candidate runs on one ballot regardless of party, and she took a majority outright, so there was no runoff. CNN reported that she became the first Republican woman elected to Congress from the state.
She took the seat her husband never held. She also joined what CNN called a record-breaking 30 Republican women in the House that year.
Before the vote, Letlow told CNN she would have joined most House Republicans in objecting to the certification of the presidential election on January 6. She also backed her state party’s censure of Sen. Bill Cassidy over his vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial.
Sources
- Julia Letlow makes history in Louisiana's 5th District special election while 2nd District goes to runoff :: WRAL.com
- Louisiana Rep-Elect Luke Letlow—Who Attended Maskless Outings, Events—Has Died of Covid-19
