Richard Baker (American politician)
American politician
Richard Hugh Baker (born May 22, 1948) is an American politician and lobbyist. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 2008, representing the 6th district of Louisiana as a Republican.
Early life and career
The son of a Methodist minister, Baker was born in New Orleans and graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He stayed in Baton Rouge after graduation and founded a real estate agency there. In 1971, just a year out of school, he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives as a Democrat from a predominantly blue-collar district in Baton Rouge and served eight terms. He became chairman of the Transportation Committee.
Congressional career
In 1986, Baker switched to the Republicans because of a long-running feud with Governor Edwin Edwards. Soon afterwards, 6th District Republican congressman Henson Moore, announced that he was running for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Russell B. Long. (Moore was defeated in that race by 7th District Democratic congressman John Breaux). Moore encouraged Baker to run for the seat, which is based in Baton Rouge and includes most of that city's suburbs.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q727361. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1987, 2008 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Baker (American politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.