Congressman who rose to powerful job still rooted back home
BATON ROUGE, La. — When he campaigned for his leadership job, Rep. Steve Scalise embraced two things he loved, baseball and his home state of Louisiana, handing out commemorative baseball bats and serving up a Cajun dinner with oysters and gumbo.
The House’s third-ranking Republican is known as much for that sort of joie-de-vivre, a backslapping, hearty embrace of the lighter side, as he is for his rock-solid conservatism and allegiance to the GOP. He returns every year to the Louisiana Legislature where he once served with hugs and handshakes as he mingles with former colleagues of both parties.
Nationally, Scalise, the majority whip, is the party-line vote-getter for Republicans in Congress and a fierce proponent of the GOP health care law and efforts to overhaul the tax code.
Back home, he’s the kid from the Italian family who’s become one of the most powerful men in Congress while remaining an unabashed champion for the food, culture and festivities of Louisiana and the political deal-making he learned there.