Mary Beth Sherman Mizell (born January 1952), is a businesswoman from Franklinton,

Louisiana 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 ...

, who is a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the Louisiana State Senate for

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, which encompasses the parishes of St. Tammany,

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, and

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, part of the

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of southeastern

. On January 11, 2016, she succeeded the

term-limited A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

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Ben Nevers.

Background

Mizell was married for forty-one years until his death of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

to James Robert "Bob" Mizell. Mizell has two children, Julie Mizell Stewart, a teacher, and Joshua Mizell, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Political life

Mizell won the state Senate position in the general election held on November 21, 2015, when she defeated the Democrat Mickey Murphy, 19,404 votes (58 percent) to 14,033 (42 percent), a former teacher and college dean. In 2011, Mizell had made a strong but losing showing for the Senate against Ben Nevers. She finished with 14,764 votes (49.4 percent) to his 15,116 (50.6 percent). I In the 2015 campaign, Murphy supported the establishment of a reservoir in Senate District 12, but Mizell voiced her opposition to the project on the grounds that it would require

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

of private land in violation of the wishes of many of the impacted property owners. Mizell was earlier an organizer of the Franklinton

Tea Party movement The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defi ...

and has been the president of Republican Women of Franklinton. Mizell sits on the Senate committees on (1) Education, (2) Retirement, (3) Commerce, Consumer Protection, and International Affairs. She is also the vice chair of the

select committees Select or SELECT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Select'' (album), an album by Kim Wilde * ''Select'' (magazine), a British music magazine * ''MTV Select'', a television program * ''Select Live'', New Zealand's C4 music program ...

of: (1) Vocational and Technical Education and (2) Women and Children. The National Rifle Association rated Mizell 86 percent in 2015, based on her campaign promises. In March 2016, Mizell joined eight other Republican state senators and Democrat

John Milkovich John Milkovich is an American politician and attorney from the state of Louisiana. A Democrat, Milkovich represented the 38th district of the Louisiana State Senate, based in southern Shreveport, from 2016 until 2020. Career Milkovich was bor ...

of Caddo Parish to oppose the bipartisan majority backing a one-cent increase in the state sales tax for a five-year period. Senators voted 29-10 for the tax hike, a part of the revenue-raising measures pushed by Governor John Bel Edwards. A House and Senate

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subsequently trimmed the five years to twenty-seven months, effective from April 1, 2016 to June 30, 2018. Under this tax hike, the sale of religious publications and cookies became taxable. Mizell submitted legislation to create a state historical protection commission. Her action is a response to the pending dismantling of

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monuments in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. However, her measure was doomed before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where five

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

Democratic senators, led by committee chairman Karen Carter Peterson, hold the majority vote. In April, 2018, Mizell was one of 10 senators who voted against criminalizing sexual abuse of animals. Despite Mizell's opposition, the bill passed with 25 votes in favor of the ban. After the bill was amended in the House, Mizell and the other dissenting Senators voted for final passage of the amended bill.

References

External links

Legislative homepage

Campaign website
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mizell, Beth 1952 births 21st-century American politicians Baptists from Louisiana Businesspeople from Louisiana Living people Republican Party Louisiana state senators People from Bogalusa, Louisiana People from Franklinton, Louisiana Women state legislators in Louisiana 21st-century American women politicians