Senator Cleo Fields Contact information

Cleo Ave Fields, born on November 22, 1962, is an American attorney and politician who serves in the Louisiana Senate. He 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 currently serves as a member of the Democratic Party and as a state senator for Louisiana’s 14th State Senate district

Fields was born in Port Allen, Louisiana, the seventh of ten children. His dock-worker father died when Fields was four, widowing his mother, Alice. The family then moved to South Baton Rouge. Fields attended Southern University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree and Juris Doctor.

In 1980, Fields graduated from McKinley High School. He attended Southern University, where he majored in mass communications and then enrolled in its College of Law. In his final year of law school, he ran for the Louisiana State Senate. At twenty-four years old, Fields became the youngest elected state senator in Louisiana’s history.

Fields championed environmental issues, job creation for minorities, and the elimination of illegal drugs. In 1990, Fields ran for the House seat from Louisiana’s Eighth Congressional District, but he lost to Republican Clyde Holloway. After Louisiana redrew district lines, Louisiana’s Fourth Congressional District elected Fields to the House of Representatives in 1992. Fields became Louisiana’s second African American congressman.

During his two terms, Fields served as parliamentarian as well as on the Small Business, Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs Committees. His main legislative goals included job creation, affordable health care, and decreasing the deficit. Throughout his terms, lawsuits challenged the Fourth District’s new borders, which Fields helped create during his time in the state senate.

Fields launched a failed campaign for governor of Louisiana in 1995. He also acted as a senior advisor to President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign. In 1997, he returned to the state senate where he founded the Louisiana Leadership Institute, which serves urban youth. Fields began practicing law in 1998 and he started his own radio show, “Cleo Live,” in 2000.

Fields is married to Debra Horton with whom he has two children, Cleo Brandon and Christopher. He continues to be an active voice in Louisiana politics.