Mike Francis

Who is Mike Francis?

Michael Gordon Francis, known as Mike Francis, is a prominent Crowley businessman who was the chairman of the Republican Party in Louisiana from 1994–2000. A staunch fiscal and social conservative, Francis was an unsuccessful candidate for Secretary of State of Louisiana in a special election held on September 30, 2006. Francis indicated that he would again seek the position again in the jungle primary on October 20, 2007, but he failed to file his qualification papers. "I will work to ensure the right to vote. I will fight to stop voter fraud, vote buying, and vote stealing," Francis vowed in his campaign for secretary of state.

As the Republican state chairman, Francis challenged the political order, including an effort to unseat most of Governor Edwin Washington Edwards' floor leaders in the Louisiana State Senate in the 1995 elections. In the 1996 Louisiana presidential caucus won by the journalist and commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, Francis worked for then U.S. Senator William Philip "Phil" Gramm of Texas, who soon left the race and deferred to the eventual nominee, former Senator Robert J. Dole of Kansas.

Francis has been mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for the District 4 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission, which will be filled in a special election on April 4, 2008, to replace member Dale Sittig of Eunice, who resigned to become director of the Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority. Ultimately, the Republican Clyde C. Holloway of Rapides Parish won the remaining nineteen months of Sittig's term.