Jay Morris

John Clyde "Jay" Morris, III
Louisiana State Senator for District 35 (Grant, Jackson, Lincoln, Ouachita, Rapides, and Winn parishes)
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 2020
Preceded by	James R. Fannin
Louisiana State Representative for District 14 (Morehouse and Ouachita parishes)
In office January 2012 – January 13, 2020
Preceded by	Sam Little
Succeeded by	Michael Echols
Born	May 24, 1958 Arkansas
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Emily Morris

John Clyde "Jay" Morris, III (born May 24, 1958), is a businessman and attorney from Monroe, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the state Senate for District 35, which encompasses the parishes of Grant, Jackson, Lincoln, Ouachita, Rapides, and Winn. Morris unseated Republican state Senator James R. Fannin by 274 votes in a runoff election held on November 16, 2019. Morris trailed during most of the tabulation of the votes but finished with 17,377 votes (50 percent) to Fannin's 17,043 (also 50 percent). Morris trailed during most of the tabulation of the ballots but finished with 17,377 votes (50 percent) to Fannin's 17,043 (also 50 percent).^[1]

Morris is a departing state representative for District 14 in Morehouse and Ouachita parishes. He won the representative's position in a runoff contest held on November 19, 2011, when he unseated fellow Republican Sam Little, a retired farmer, originally from Bastrop in Morehouse Parish. In that race, Morris polled 5,005 votes (59.1 percent) to Little's 3,463 ballots (40.9 percent).^[2] In the campaign for the heavily redistricted seat, Little and Morris accused each other of engaging in negative campaigning. A graduate of Louisiana State University and the LSU Law Center, both in Baton Rouge,^[3] Morris is employed in the mortgage service industry.^[4]

Morris formerly worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for former U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., a Democrat.^[3] He was also a staff member at one time for the Louisiana Municipal Association.^[5] He is a partner of the Thompson, Sparks, Dean and Morris law firm.^[3][6]

Morris led the three-candidate field in the primary held on October 22, with 5,078 votes (42.6 percent). Little trailed with 4,384 ballots (36.7 percent). A third Republican, Michael Echols, held the remaining but critical 2,471 votes (20.7 percent).^[7]

Morris, a native of Arkansas, was reared in Smackover. Prior to residing in Monroe, Morris lived in St. Joseph in Tensas Parish, Rayville in Richland Parish, and New Orleans.^[8]

In October 2018, Morris endorsed U.S. Senator John Neely Kennedy for governor in the 2019 nonpartisan blanket primary election against the Democrat incumbent, John Bel Edwards. Kennedy, however, did not enter the governor's race. Morris said that he personally likes Edwards but considered Kennedy likely to "bring constructive conservative leadership" to a state that has been hurting economically.^[9]

Morris did not seek a third term in the House. Instead he challenged Democrat-turned-Republican James R. "Jim" Fannin of Jonesboro in the nonpartisan blanket primary on October 12, 2019, for the 35th District state Senate seat. Fannin led in the primary with 12,559 votes (39 percent). Morris received 11,782 votes (36 percent). Matt Parker, a Republican from Calhoun, finished with a significant 8,154 votes (25 percent). Fannin and Morris then met in the runoff contest on November 16, 2019.^[10]

Morris' House seat will be filled in 2020 by another Republican, Michael Echols, a departing member of the Monroe City Council. Echols was unopposed for the seat in the 2019 primary. In 2011, Echols was the third-placed candidate eliminated in a runoff competition between Jay Morris and Sam Little.

In May 2021, Morris, who campaigned two years earlier as conservative, joined four other North Louisiana state senators previously considered conservatives, Barrow Peacock, Robert Mills, Barry Milligan, and Stewart Cathey, in voting to extend a $400 million temporary state sales tax even though the state is awaiting a windfall in federal coronavirus stimulus funding.^[11]