Former New York Mayor and President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was in Lafayette today to support the congressional campaign of Josh Guillory. Giuliani headlined the fundraiser at the Petroleum Club in the Oil Center for Guillory.
At a brief press availability prior to the event, Giuliani said he’s supporting Guillory, instead of incumbent U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, who also is a Republican, because Guillory "belongs to this district."
"That’s how politics is done on a local level," Giuliani said. "It’s people to people contact. If you lose that with a member of congress, you’re losing three-quarters of what has to be done."
Giuliani gestured toward Guillory.
"He belongs to this community. He’s bringing his children up here, his wife is a native, he’s been here 20 years, since he was a young guy. His law career is here. They can yell at him. the other guy goes and hides. He doesn’t show up here a lot. It’s very bad. Bad for my party," Giuliani said.
A reporter asked Giuliani if he had any other differences with Higgins’ record in Congress.
"No, the main thing is not living here, and therefore being vulnerable," he said. "If you look at the reasons why people get thrown out of Congress, aside from corruption and sexual abuse and that sort of thing, it’s they are not living in the districts, and absentee. Those are the main reasons. And he’s got a big one."
Here’s the video
We’ve reached out to Higgins’ office for a response to these remarks. We’ll update the story as soon as we hear back from them.
Higgins’ rural St. Landry Parish home is not in the third congressional district, although much of the parish is. Residency is not a requirement to run for Congress; a candidate must be 25 years old, a U.S. Citizen for at least seven years, and a resident of the state in which the district exists.
During the campaign, we asked Higgins about it. This was his response:
"I live just outside of the 3rd district, i’m associated culturally and by heritage with the third district and of course it’s perfectly legal to run if you live outside the district," Higgins said.
Giuliani told KPEL this morning that he gets involved in races where he thinks there’s a chance to improve the situation for the Republican Party.
Giuliani told a New York newspaper that he is dating GOP fundraiser Jennifer LeBlanc of Lafayette, who used to work on Higgins’ campaign but now is working with Guillory.
On Thursday, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. announced its support for U.S. Representative Clay Higgins (LA-03) in his race for reelection to Congress following a personal endorsement by President Trump via Twitter.
