Cleo Fields
Official portrait, 2024
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Garret Graves
Constituency	6th district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Jim McCrery
Succeeded by	Jim McCrery
Constituency	4th district
Member of theLouisiana State Senate from the14th district
In office January 13, 2020 – January 3, 2025
Preceded by	Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb
Succeeded by	Larry Selders
In office December 1997 – January 2008
Preceded by	John Michael Guidry
Succeeded by	Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb
In office March 1988 – January 3, 1993
Preceded by	Richard Turnley
Succeeded by	John Guidry
Personal details
Born	(1962-11-22)November 22, 1962 (age 63) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Debra Horton
Children	2
Education	Southern University (BA,JD)
Website	House website Campaign website

Cleo C. Fields^[1] (born November 22, 1962)^[2] is an American attorney and politician who serves in theUnited States House of Representatives, currently representingLouisiana's 6th congressional district. He previously representedLouisiana's 4th congressional district from 1993 to 1997 and ran unsuccessfully forgovernor of Louisiana in1995. He has served as a member of the Louisiana State Senate on three different occasions. Fields is a member of theDemocratic Party.

Fields received his undergraduate and law degrees fromSouthern University inBaton Rouge. In 1980, he founded the fundraising group Young Adults for Positive Action and in 1987 he was elected to theLouisiana Senate. He ran for Congress in 1990 and was defeated but was re-elected to the State Senate for the14th district in 1991.

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 in second in thejungle primary before losing toMike Foster in thegeneral election. He did not run for re-election to the House in 1996 and was succeeded by RepublicanJohn Cooksey.

Fields was elected to the State Senate in 1997 and re-elected in 2003, then ran unsuccessfully for theLouisiana 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 ofterm 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.

On January 23, 2024, Fields announced a campaign to return to Congress after court-ordered redistricting gave Louisiana a second Black-majority and Democratic-leaning seat.^[3] He won the Novemberelection and was sworn into the House of Representatives after a 28-year absence on January 3, 2025.

Fields was born on November 22, 1962 inBaton Rouge, Louisiana and was educated atMcKinley High School.^[4][5]

Fields attendedSouthern University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree andJuris Doctor.^[6]

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While still in law school, Fields began his first campaign forLouisiana State Senate, doing most of the organizational work himself and writing his own jingles for radio commercials. Fields began by building a base with college students in his campaign against longtime incumbent Richard Turnley. To the surprise of some experts, he unseated Turnley, who in theCommercial-Appeal referred to Fields as "a very ambitious young man and an astute campaigner."^[7]

Fields served in the state Senate for six years. In1990, he entered thenonpartisan blanket primary for the8th District, but was defeated in the first round by incumbent RepublicanClyde Holloway.He ran again in1992, this time in the newly created4th District, a 63 percent black majority district stretching in a "Z" shape fromShreveport to Baton Rouge. He finished first in a crowded seven-way primary, coming roughly 1,500 votes short of winning outright. He was forced into a runoff against fellow state senator Charles D. Jones of Monroe, which Fields won with more than 73 percent of the vote. At thirty, he was once again the youngest legislator. He advanced his agenda in Congress through the House Small Business Committee, the House Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs Committee, the Housing and Community Opportunity Committee, and several others.

Fields was a staunchliberal while in Congress. He received a 0 percentage rating by the Christian Coalition and theCompetitive Enterprise Institute. Meanwhile, progressive interest groups such as theNational Abortion Rights Action League, PeacePAC, and theAmerican Public Health Association, as well as a range of labor-affiliated organizations, gave him a perfect rating. His efforts as a legislator often involved channeling funds into education and protecting consumers from the excesses of insurers, banks, and other such institutions.Congressional Quarterly noted that Fields "has tried to use his seats on the Banking Committee and the Small Business Committee to leverage capital for small businesses willing to relocate in his district, where poverty rates are high." Though he made many political enemies with his voting record, his personal standing in Congress remained high. When his first child was born in 1995, he won cheers from his colleagues on the floor.^[8]

Fields's district was designed to collect a larger black populace — and more black votes — than a competing version. After various challenges, referrals to higher courts, and redraws, Fields was finally able to run in his custom-designed district and trounced a nominal Republican challenger in1994. His district woes were far from over, however, and the district was ultimately thrown out by theSupreme Court as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. His home in Baton Rouge was placed in the6th District of RepublicanRichard Baker, while the northern portions were split between the 4th and 5th districts.

In 1995 he became a candidate for Louisiana governor. Many in his party were angered by his candidacy, since most felt that a black challenger could not seriously win the office andMason-Dixon Polling released on October 17, 1995 showed Fields to be the loser in every possible head-to-head combination of candidates.^{[citation needed]} He narrowly beat the top two white Democratic candidates in the primary and made it to a runoff with RepublicanMike Foster. Though race had been a preeminent factor during his Congressional redistricting fight, Fields vowed not to emphasize color in the election, proclaiming, "I'm not running to be the African American governor, but to be the best governor," in a speech excerpted in theChicago Tribune. "Don't vote for me because I'm black, ... don't vote against me because I'm black." His remarks in theLos Angeles Times continued this theme: "When a baby cries, it's not a white baby or a black baby — it's a hungry baby," he asserted. "When people cry for job opportunities, they're not black or white — they're unemployed." He was also outspoken in his support for gun control, which Foster opposed.

Foster's conservative message, designed by media consultant Roy Fletcher, who also had handled Cleo Fields' campaign for Congress, resonated with Louisiana's voters, who in a previous election had given formerKu Klux Klan leaderDavid Duke nearly 40 percent of the popular vote. As the polls predicted, Fields was defeated soundly in the runoff. Exit polling showed that 95% of his votes came from the black community.^{[citation needed]} During this race Fields began a feud with fellow DemocratMary Landrieu who did not endorse him in the second round. Like many, she believed his bid had been funded by Republicans and was intended to be a spoiler to let Foster win. Fields retaliated by labeling her campaign racist and refusing to endorse her in her later race forUnited States Senate.

In 1997, Fields was again elected to the Louisiana Senate for the14th district. He served at the same time as his brother Wilson until Wilson Fields won a judgeship, the first time in Louisiana history that two brothers served together in the Senate. In 1997, Fields was caught on an FBI surveillance tape stuffing about $20,000 in cash in his pockets after accepting it from then Governor Edwin Edwards. Fields was not charged with a crime.^[9]

Fields served until he became ineligible to run for re-election because ofterm limits. An amendment to the term limits law was meant to have enabled him to run for another term, but the new law was invalidated by theLouisiana Supreme Court. He was succeeded in 2008 byYvonne Dorsey-Colomb.

In 2019, Dorsey-Colomb was herself term-limited, and Fields ran to succeed her. On October 12, 2019, Fields was re-elected to the 14th senatorial district, making history again by becoming the first person in Louisiana to return to the Senate for the third time. He defeatedState RepresentativePatricia Haynes Smith with 53% of the vote.

In 2023, federal courts ruled that Louisiana's Congressional map, drawn after the2020 census, was an unlawful racial gerrymander and that a second majority Black seat needed to be drawn to comply with theVoting Rights Act.^[10] The new map, featuring a second majority Black district numbered the6th district, was finalized on January 23, 2024, and signed into law by GovernorJeff Landry.^[11] Fields announced his candidacy for the 6th district the same day.^[3] The new 6th contains much of the area Fields represented in his first stint in Congress. He won the November election to return to Congress after a 28-year absence.

Rep. Fields was appointed to the Committee on Financial Services for the119th United States Congress.^[12]

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Fields is aBaptist.^[13]

In the 1997 trial of former Louisiana GovernorEdwin Edwards, prosecutors released an FBI surveillance videotape showed him receiving a large amount of cash ($20,000 to $25,000) which the FBI believed was to be used to influence votes in granting casino licenses. Fields was named an "unindicted co-conspirator,"^[14] but was never formally charged. Jim Letten, leader of the prosecution team and later acting U.S. attorney, said Fields came close to being indicted.^[15] At the time, Fields stated that the incident was just an innocent business transaction between friends, and said there was a humorous explanation, which he would make public shortly thereafter. A cloud hung over Fields in Edwards' criminal trial and in the end Fields refused to deliver the promised "humorous" explanation, stating that at the time of the cash transfer, he was not an elected official, and therefore under no obligation to explain publicly.^[16][17]

Fields is credited with the original version of a quotation that became popular followingBarack Obama's victory in the2008 presidential election. At the "State of the Black Union 2008" symposium inNew Orleans, Louisiana in February 2008, Fields said, "Rosa Parks sat down so we could stand up.Martin Luther King marched soJesse Jackson could run. Jesse Jackson ran so Obama could win."^[18] Another version has Fields saying, "W. E. B. Du Bois taught so that Rosa Parks could take a seat. Rosa took a seat so we all could take a stand. We all took a stand so that Martin Luther King Jr. could march. Martin marched so Jesse Jackson could run. Jesse ran so Obama could WIN."^[19] Fields's statement was shortened by therapperJay-Z in "My President Is Black": "Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk/ Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run/ Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly."^[20]

• List of African-American United States representatives

• Congressman Cleo Fields official U.S. House website
• Cleo Fields for Congress campaign website
• Biography at theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at theFederal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at theLibrary of Congress
• Profile atVote Smart
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1962 births
• 20th-century African-American politicians
• 20th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature
• 21st-century African-American politicians
• 21st-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature
• 21st-century United States representatives
• African-American United States representatives
• African-American state legislators in Louisiana
• Baptists from Louisiana
• Democratic Party Louisiana state senators
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
• Living people
• Louisiana Democrats
• Louisiana lawyers
• McKinley Senior High School alumni
• People from Port Allen, Louisiana
• Southern University Law Center alumni

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