Rep. Landry, Nancy

House Member

Rep. Landry, Nancy (R)
District# 31, Lafayette

Contact Information

District Office
Legislative Assistant : Brittany Morgan
Email Nancy Landry
Phone: (337)262-2252
Fax: (337)262-2254
Address: 109 South College Road
Lafayette, LA 70503
Map
Capitol House Switch Band: (225) 342-6945
Capitol House Fax: (225)342-8336

Profile

- District #: House District 1
- Party: Republican
- Caucus Membership: Acadiana Delegation, Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus, Louisiana Republican Legislative Delegation
- Occupation: Family Law Counselor
- Education: Louisiana State University, B.A., 1985; Louisiana State University Law School, JD, 1990
- Spouse: Single
- Year Elected: 2008
- Last Year Eligible(Term Limit): 2020
- 2008 Election
  Just one year after losing the District 31 runoff to former Rep. Don Trahan by only 33 votes, Landry found herself in a hard-fought special election during the fall of 2008 to replace Trahan. She faced off against fellow Republican Troy Theriot. He campaigned as a small business owner, but Landry carried the same theme and secured support from the political arm of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. Landry had also switched from having no affiliation in 2008 to the Republican Party for the race. She walked away from the special election with 66% of the votes cast. Her final eligible term won’t be until 2016.

District Profile

Registered Voters by Parish: Lafayette 80.5%, Vermillion 19.5%
Municipalities/Communities Represented:
- Louisiana Map
- District Map
- Metro Map
Economic: District 31, made up of southern Lafayette Parish and the northern section of Vermilion. The district has experienced rapid growth in recent years and has all the infrastructure challenges of a burgeoning municipality. Many residents work in various sectors of the region’s extensive oil and gas industry, from offshore jobs and oil patch rigs to the varied service and supply sectors. Residents also work in retail and service jobs in nearby Lafayette. The Vermilion Parish portion of the district is largely rural and agriculture alone fuels the economy. Across the rest of the district, sugarcane, rice, soybeans and cattle are mainstays.

Social: District 31, like much of the Acadiana region, is dominated by descendants of the Acadians who settled here. They are heavily Catholic, tend to be conservative on social issues and value their families and heritage. The district’s African-American population is small, but the district remains majority Democratic despite its conservative tendencies. If recent voting trends are any indication, however, the region is trending Republican.

Political: District 31 is an amalgam of hard line conservatives from the developed portions of the district and loyal, but moderate, Democrats who reside in the more rural areas. Conservative Democrats do well here, as do pro-business Republicans who understand the district’s affinity for infrastructure improvements and financial breaks for the oil and gas industry.

Biography

- Nancy R. Landry, a Republican, is among the only legislators who was both born another country and reared in a military setting. She was born to a Navy man from Vermilion Parish on a U.S. military base overseas. That was before Landry’s large family settled in the Lafayette area. Her father’s devotion to public service rubbed off on Landry and, after graduating from LSU Law School in 1990, she served as a judicial family law clerk for the 15th Judicial District. In private practice, Landry has established an award-winning system she calls "unbundled legal services," which essentially provides reduced-cost legal representation to families in need.
- With such a background, it should come as no surprise that Landry has constantly promised voters that she will place families ahead of partisanship and political gain. Elected in a 2008 special election, Landry says she has a “conservative, common sense approach” to policymaking and places a lot of stock in regional strategies – in her case, this means the Acadiana and Lafayette delegations.
- Through her committee assignments, Landry has been able to leverage her institutional knowledge of family law on the House Civil Law and Procedure Committee and promote her region’s vast oil and gas industry on the House Natural Resources Committee. During her brief time in the Lower Chamber, Landry has been an effective policymaker. The most recent 2009 regular session saw Landry file five bills in her rookie effort, all of which were later signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal. A common legislative theme involves legal protections for families and children. Landry has passed laws developing new procedures for state employees who work with children and she’s created new legal delays for certain child custody orders.