Tanner Magee

Tanner Daniel Magee
Louisiana State Representative for District 53 (Terrebonne Parish)
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 11, 2016
Preceded by	Lenar Whitney
Born	July 30, 1980 Houma, Terrebonne Parish Louisiana
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Kristen Lora Balhoff Magee
Children	Triplet daughters

Tanner Daniel Magee (born July 30, 1980)^[1] is a criminal defense lawyer in his native Houma in Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. On January 11, 2016, he succeeded fellow Republican Lenar Whitney, whom he unseated in the runoff election held on November 21, 2015.

Magee is a graduate of Louisiana State University, from which he obtained a bachelor's degree in psychology and a Master of Public Administration, and the LSU Law School, both in the capital city of Baton Rouge. He practices with the Houma firm of Taylor Wellons Politz & Duhe.^[2][3] Magee and his wife, the former Kristen Lora Balhoff (born May 14, 1990), are the parents of triplet daughters. They reside in Theriot, sixteen miles south of Houma.^[4]

In the primary election on October 24, 2015, Magee led Lenar Whitney by nine votes, 3,073 (34.35 percent) to her 3,064 (34.25 percent). The Democratic candidate, Brenda Leroux Babin, polled the remaining bur crucial 2,809 ballots (31.4 percent).^[5]

In the second round of balloting in conjunction with the victory of the Democrat John Bel Edwards as governor, Magee handily unseated Whitney, 4,978 votes (60.8 percent) to 3,206 votes (39.2 percent).^[6] Whitney was seeking her second term in the state House. She had been among the defeated candidates in the 2014 race for Louisiana's 6th congressional district seat, which was won by another Republican, Garret Graves, who succeeded Bill Cassidy upon Cassidy's election to the United States Senate in the race against Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu.

In 2018, Representative Magee proposed legislation to permit Uber to operate in the state, a move opposed by established cab companies. The Baton Rouge Advocate reported that state Senate President John Alario of Jefferson Parish used parliamentary maneuvers to kill the legislation. Alario is a close friend of Democratic former state Senator Francis Heitmeier of New Orleans, who makes a living selling insurance to cab companies. Magee said that his bill could easily have cleared the legislature except for "one really important person who's just not on board," a reference to Alario, whose name Magee specifically declined to use ^[7]

Magee joins Democrats in choosing House Speaker

​ Magee gained his second House term by running without opposition in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 12, 2019.

On January 13, 2020, Magee was among twenty-three Republican lawmakers, known as the Fraud Squad, who voted for the Moderate Republican Clay Schexnayder of Ascension Parish, whose election as House Speaker, sixty to forty-five, depended heavily on the votes of thirty-five Democratic lawmakers, along with two Independents, and the Republican defectors. Statewide radio commentator Moon Griffon coined the term "Fraud Squad" for the twenty-three dissidents nominally in the Republican Party.^[8]

Citing the "toxic" political atmosphere in the Louisiana House, Magee did not seek reelection to a third term in the October 14, 2023, primary.^[9] Three Republicans, Jessica Domangue, Dirk Guidry, and Willis Trosclair, Jr., sought to capture Magee's House seat. A runoff contest will be held on November 18 between Domangue and Guidry, who polled 43 and 36 percent, respectively, in the primary election.^[10]