Wilson did not switch parties until after Waggonner declared that he would not seek reelection. Wilson switched parties to run for Congress: "I have never voted for a Democrat for President, and the only way for the Republican Party to grow is for Democrats to switch over." He quickly emerged as the leading Republican candidate in the new Louisiana nonpartisan blanket primary format to choose a successor to retiring Democratic Representative Joe Waggonner of Plain Dealing. Bruce Lynn after waiting out a term won Wilson's House seat by a narrow margin in the 1975 general election. Why should you vote for him," proclaimed the Williamson advertisements. Don Williamson defeated Wilson in part by reminding voters that Wilson had a high rate of absenteeism while in the state House. In 1975, Wilson, still a Democrat, ran for the state Senate but lost in the general election to Democratic incumbent and later Republican Donald Wayne "Don" Williamson, then of Vivian and another son of Earl Williamson and a brother of James Williamson.
Wilson also worked to deregulate the milk industry. He was one of the leading supporters of the right-to-work law that was adopted shortly after he left the legislature. Wilson was considered a conservative reformer during his term in the legislature. James Williamson, like Jimmy Wilson, was affiliated with the Citizen's Bank board. Earl Williamson was also a veteran Caddo Parish Police Jury member. Wilson was succeeded as mayor by James Whitfield Williamson, a son of Earl Williamson, whom Wilson had followed in the position of mayor. He was also an avid golfer and was often seen on the links at the Monterey Country Club in Vivian. Lynn described Wilson as a "very successful" mayor and a popular Vivian grocer. When Wilson won the Democratic nomination for the state House seat, the Republican candidate, Bruce Newton Lynn, I, withdrew in favor of Wilson, with whom he had served on the North Caddo Parish Hospital Board. Wilson was elected mayor of Vivian in 1966 and served until 1972, when he assumed the District 1 seat in the state legislature. While a conflict of interest by virtue of his activities with the bank in Vivian prevented him from serving on the board in Blanchard as well, he did own stock in the Blanchard bank, and as a legislator he was able to get the state charter approved. In 1972, Wilson helped to form the Peoples Bank & Trust Company of Blanchard, also in Caddo Parish. After military service, he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1954 from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, at which he was a member of Kappa Sigma.Ī successful businessman, Wilson owned two supermarkets, including the Big Star in Vivian, and he was chairman of the board of the state-chartered Citizens Bank and Trust Company of Vivian, which also has a Shreveport branch. Army, attained the rank of sergeant, and served during the Korean War. He was reared in Vivian and graduated in 1949 from Vivian High School, now North Caddo High School.
Wilson was born in Carlsbad in Eddy County near the famous Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico, to Hamilton Paul and Lola C. The congressional seat turned Republican in 1988 and is currently represented by Mike Johnson, a conservative from Bossier Parish. He is most remembered in politics for having switched affiliation to the Republican Party in 1978 and then coming within 266 disputed votes of winning a historically Democratic seat in the U.S. His single term extended from 1972 to 1976.
Wilson, known as Jimmy Wilson (Janu– November 19, 1986), was a pro- business Democratic state representative from Vivian in Caddo Parish in the far northwestern portion of Louisiana. Victory went to a future governor, Buddy Roemer. (4) Wilson found that a close and disputed vote in 1978 would not translate into electoral success two years later, when he waged his second congressional campaign in 1980. He lost out to Anthony Claude Leach, Jr., himself a businessman and a former state legislator. (3) Wilson was among hundreds of Louisiana Democrats who switched to Republican affiliation as he waged his first race for the United States House of Representatives in 1978. (2) After a term in the Louisiana House of Representatives, Wilson lost out to Don Williamson in a race for the state Senate in 1975. (1) A native of New Mexico, Wilson moved to northern Caddo Parish, Louisiana, with his family and embarked on a successful business career.
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