Fields, Cleo, 1962-

FIELDS, Cleo, a Representative from Louisiana; born in Baton Rouge, La., November 22, 1962; graduated from McKinley High School, Baton Rouge, La., 1980; B.A., Southern University, 1984, J.D., Southern University Law Center, 1987; founder, Young Adults for Positive Action; lawyer, private practice; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1990 to the One Hundred Second Congress; member of the Louisiana state senate, 1986-1992, 1997-2007, 2019-present; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Third and One Hundred Fourth Congresses (January 3, 1993-January 3, 1997); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Fifth Congress; unsuccessful candidate for election for Governor of Louisiana in 1995.

<p>Cleo Fields is a man of many accomplishments for the state of Louisiana. He is a 1980 graduate of McKinley High School and a 1984 graduate of Southern University in the field of Mass Communications. During his senior year at Southern University, he was elected Student Government Association President, and was also elected by the Louisiana Council of Student Body Presidents to serve on the Louisiana Board of Regents. In 1987, Fields obtained his law degree from Southern University School of Law after having clerked for both East Baton Rouge Parish City Prosecutor’s office and the Parish Attorney’s Office.</p>

<p>Upon completion of law school, the same year, Fields was elected to the Louisiana State Senate at the age of 24. He became the youngest person ever elected to the State Senate in Louisiana’s history and at that time, the youngest in the nation. As State Senator, he authored and passed legislation that established Drug Free Zones near school campuses, an Inner City Economic Development Program, and numerous other bills he helped co-author for the betterment of the 14th senatorial district.</p>

<p>In 1992, Fields was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as Congressman of Louisiana’s 4th Congressional district. Here again, at age 30, Fields held the position of being the youngest member to serve in the 103rd congress. As congressman, he introduced the Delta Initiatives Act, the Stolen Guns Act, and Check Cashing Act of 1993. He secured funds for various projects and held numerous town hall meetings securing several Presidential Cabinet members to address his constituents concerns personally. He also created a Congressional Classroom for elementary through secondary school-age students, noted for being the first of its kind in the country, to develop leadership and self-esteem while understanding the governmental process. It is known today as the Louisiana Leadership Institute.</p>

<p>From an impoverished childhood, Cleo Fields rose to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives at age 29, serving as the youngest Member of the 103rd Congress (1993–1995). “Chills just went down my spine,” Fields remarked about his swearing–in. Yet the controversy over racial gerrymandering and the peculiarity of Louisiana’s election law extinguished Fields’s meteoric political career in the U.S. House after just two terms.</p>

<p>Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on November 22, 1962, Cleo was one of 10 children of Isidore Fields, a dockworker, and Alice Fields, a maid. Isidore died after falling asleep behind the wheel of his car on his way home from working a double shift. Poverty became a way of life for four–year–old Cleo, as the Fields household struggled to make ends meet. “I didn’t know what poor was,” Cleo Fields later recalled, “I thought mommas were supposed to put three patches in a pair of pants. In junior high school, it really hit me in the face. That’s when I realized what my mother was going through.” At one point, the family was evicted from a Baton Rouge apartment. Throughout his youth, Fields worked several jobs to aid his family, taking a shift at a fast food restaurant and working at the Baton Rouge mayor’s office of youth opportunity to save money for college. After graduating from McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, Fields attended cross–town Southern University, earning his bachelors and law degrees. Politics became his passion. In his early law school years, he began circulating bumper stickers to classmates that read, “I’m waiting for Cleo Fields.” Fields noted, “I didn’t know what office I would run for, so I didn’t want to be too specific.”</p>

<p>During his final year of law school in 1986, Fields ran a grass–roots campaign for the Louisiana state senate. Without money to launch a campaign, he depended on student volunteers and the aid of his siblings to oust a well–entrenched incumbent. His eventual victory made the 24–year–old the youngest state legislator ever elected in Louisiana. Fields’s slight, youthful build and five–foot, seven–inch frame were dwarfed by the round, tortoiseshell glasses that became his trademark. He once quipped to a crowd of voters, “I know I don’t look like a man, but I am one.” While in the state legislature, Fields focused on environmental issues and economic opportunities for minorities. He also emerged as a leader in the war against illegal drugs. Fields married his high school sweetheart, Debra Horton. The couple had two sons, Cleo Brandon, born in 1995, and Christopher, born in 1998.</p>

<p>Cleo C. Fields (born November 22, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who represented Louisiana's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1997 and ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Louisiana in 1995. He serves as a state senator for Louisiana's 14th State Senate district, a position he held twice before.</p>

<p>Fields was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and received his undergraduate and law degrees from Southern University in Baton Rouge. In 1980, he founded the fundraising group Young Adults for Positive Action and in 1987 he was elected to the Louisiana Senate. He ran for Congress in 1990 and was defeated but was re-elected to the State Senate for the 14th district in 1991.</p>

<p>Fields was elected to represent Louisiana's 4th congressional district in the House of Representatives in 1992 and re-elected in 1994. He ran for governor in 1995, coming second in the jungle primary and then losing in a landslide to Mike Foster. He did not run for re-election to the House in 1996 and his seat was taken by Republican John Cooksey.</p>

<p>Fields was elected back to the State Senate in 1997 and re-elected in 2003, then running unsuccessfully for the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 2004. On October 1, 2007, the Louisiana State Supreme Court ruled that Fields could not stand for re-election to his State Senate seat because of term limits. The state legislature had passed a law in 2006 that had defined the date of the swearing in of Fields and of the intended beneficiary, Shreveport Republican Wayne Waddell, in a way that would have allowed Fields and Waddell to stand for re-election in November 2007 and serve one more term, but the court ruled the law unconstitutional. He was elected to the seat again in 2019.</p>