Julie Skinner Stokes (born January 23, 1970) is an American politician and

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

who served as a member of the

Louisiana House of Representatives The Louisiana House of Representatives (french: link=no, Chambre des Représentants de Louisiane) is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. This chamber is composed of 105 repr ...

for the 79th district from 2013 to 2020.

Early life and education

Stokes is the only child of Doris Guerin Skinner, a Metairie native, and the late Edward Thomas Skinner. In 1992, Stokes received her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in accounting from the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

. She attended Jefferson Parish Public Schools and the University of New Orleans. After four years on full academic scholarship at UNO, she received her Bachelor of Science in accounting. She started working at a

Big Four accounting firm The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world, the global accounting networks Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The four are often grouped because they are comparable in size re ...

and passed the CPA exam on her first effort.

Career

From 2000 to 2010, Stokes operated Julie S. Stokes, CPA, but thereafter became the

chief financial officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

of Stokes & Associates. She is also a tax preparer. On March 2, 2013, Stokes won a special election to the Louisiana House to succeed fellow Republican Tony Ligi, who resigned from office to become director of the Jefferson Business Council. By defeating three fellow Republicans, Stokes received 55 percent of the vote to fill the nearly three years remaining in Li's term. Businessman Jack Rizzuto, a candidate defeated by Ligi in 2007, finished second in the 2013 contest with 31 percent of the ballots cast. Allison Bent Bowler, the chief financial officer at Benjamin Franklin High School in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

received nine percent of the vote. No

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

ran for the position. In her freshman legislative year in 2013, Stokes was rated at 71 percent by the

Louisiana Association of Business and Industry Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. Stokes servesdon the Health & Welfare, Labor & Industrial Relations, and Ways & Means committees. On November 6, 2018, Stokes finished in fifth place with 163,769 votes (11 percent) in the special election to fill the position of secretary of state, vacated by Republican

Tom Schedler John Thomas Schedler is the former Secretary of State of Louisiana The secretary of state of Louisiana (french: Secrétaire d'État de la Louisiane) is one of the elected constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Louisiana and serves as t ...

. The two top vote-getters, Republican interim secretary

Kyle Ardoin Robert Kyle Ardoin (born July 31, 1967) is an American politician from the state of Louisiana. A Republican, he has served as Secretary of State of Louisiana since May 9, 2018. Ardoin took the post when former Secretary of State Tom Schedler res ...

and Democrat Gwen Collins-Greenup, met in a December 8 runoff contest.

Personal life

Stokes resides in Kenner with her husband Larry and their two children, Brandon and Taylor. Until her diagnosis of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

in 2017, Stokes was a candidate for Louisiana

state treasurer In the state governments of the United States, 48 of the 50 states have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the position in 1926; duties were transferred to New York State Comptroller. Texas abolished the position of Texas ...

in the special election scheduled for October 14, 2017 to choose a successor to

John Neely Kennedy John Neely Kennedy (born November 21, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Louisiana since 2017. He served as the Louisiana State Treasurer from 2000 to 2017. Kennedy has been a memb ...

, who was elected in 2016 to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. Stokes underwent five months of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

and has been declared cancer-free.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Julie 1970 births Living people 21st-century American politicians American accountants Women accountants Businesspeople from Louisiana Republican Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives People from Kenner, Louisiana University of New Orleans alumni