Julia Letlow

It was Dec. 11, 2020, only six days after Luke Letlow had won an open seat to represent the 5th Congressional District that stretched from Monroe south to the Florida Parishes.

He was still on a high as he sat for an interview, having fulfilled an ambition that was 20 years in the making as he became an increasingly consequential player in Republican circles.

“I did not run for Congress to go up there and be one of the folks who screams at the other side,” Luke told WDSU-TV reporter Travers Mackel from his kitchen in rural Richland Parish. “The reason I’m going to Congress is to get things done.”

Afterward, Luke told his wife Julia Letlow that he was running a fever.

He died 18 days later from COVID.

Julia Letlow buried her husband in a country cemetery near their home and almost immediately afterward faced the most consequential decision of her career: Now a widow with two children younger than five, would she run for Luke’s congressional seat?

Meet the other candidate: How Jamie Davis went from farmer to U.S. Senate candidate: ‘You have to get out and see people’

Unlike her husband, Letlow had no hankering for elected office. A senior administrator at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, she expected to continue working in higher education. But Ralph Abraham, a veterinarian and doctor who had held the congressional seat for six years before Luke, asked her to consider running for the seat.

Letlow consulted others, including her parents and Luke’s, and she prayed. Her decision was clinched while at home when she heard a song that she thought was a sign from the Lord.

Today, Letlow has served five years in the U.S. House and is considered the heavy favorite to become Louisiana’s next senator. Endorsed by President Donald Trump, Letlow knocked Sen. Bill Cassidy out of the race in the Republican primary.

She faces off on Nov. 3 in the general election against Jamie Davis, a farmer from Tensas Parish who is the Democratic candidate.

After five years in the public eye, Letlow steps onto a stage and strides from one event to another with confidence. But she never acts like a big shot. She doesn’t always seem at ease playing the part of a politician, still laughs nervously at times and retains a sense of: Golly, how did I get here?

‘The good Lord doesn’t waste an experience’

As she readily acknowledges, Letlow wouldn’t be in this position but for her husband’s tragic death.

“I happen to be a woman of faith,” she said in a March 2021 speech as she first campaigned for Luke’s seat. “I believe that the good Lord doesn’t waste an experience, good or bad. I happen to feel that and see that so clearly in my life now as I walk this path that I never dreamed that I would be walking.”

Luke and Julia had known each other casually at Ouachita Christian School in Monroe – he was one year ahead of her – but they had been out of touch. Then they attended the same party before an LSU football game while both were in college.

A mutual friend pointed Luke out and said, “He’s Baton Rouge’s most eligible bachelor now.”

They became a couple. Months later, Letlow invited him to her home in Monroe for dinner. She made lasagna and thought he would ask her hand in marriage. Instead, he broke up.

“It was devastating,” Letlow remembered. “It was one of the lowest points in my life.”

But a year later, he sent her a contrite email, saying he had been immature. He asked for forgiveness. They married six months later.

In 2014, Luke managed Abraham’s campaign for the 5th Congressional District and became his chief of staff after Abraham won the election.

In 2020, Luke was well-positioned when Abraham decided not to seek a fourth term in Congress.

Letlow campaigned with her husband whenever she was free, serving as his biggest champion.

“Honey, you’ve got this,” she would tell him. “God gave you this talent for a reason. It’s a blessing to see you utilize this.”

Luke ran first in the nine-candidate primary and then crushed his runoff opponent on Dec. 5, 2020. The next day, Luke turned 41, and they had their daughter baptized at the local Presbyterian Church.

But after Luke told her he was running a fever five days later, Letlow drove him to the hospital in Monroe, checked him in and was then given the agonizing news that she couldn’t be by his side because Covid was so contagious and dangerous.

When Luke worsened, an ambulance took him to a hospital in Shreveport.

Luke developed a blood clot. The doctor called Julia to tell her that an operation had been successful.

“Then everything kind of went nuts, and he hung up,” Letlow said. “It was about an hour later that I got the call.”

Letlow had been through tragedy before. When she was 20, her 17-year-old brother Jeremy died in a car crash.

When she got the news then, she fell to her knees and cried uncontrollably. But later that day when her sister was too inconsolable, Letlow collected herself enough to break the news to her parents.

Afterward, she learned to live with the grief by interviewing people who also had lost brothers and sisters – and how they coped with it – for her doctoral dissertation at the University of South Florida.

Now, 20 years after Jeremy died, she had to deal with more heartbreak with Luke’s death.

“The minute your spouse dies, yes, you’re overcome with incredible grief and shock and loss,” she said recently. “But the first thought that went to my mind was, ‘Oh, no, I’m solely responsible for two babies. I’m going to have to keep going for them.’”

‘I just had this peace about it'

After Luke was buried, Abraham said he wanted to discuss something with Letlow: She ought to consider running for his seat.

“Julia, you were by his side,” someone else told her. “You learned from him. You saw what public service looks like. If there’s any desire in your heart to continue his legacy, we’d like for you to continue.”

Letlow would later say that never in a million years had she thought someone would encourage her to run.

But she trusted Abraham, Luke’s mentor, and warmed to the idea.

Letlow remembered that she and Luke had held many conversations about the need to act as a humble servant to others.

She also remembered a lesson from the siblings who had lost a loved one: Find a way to get outside of yourself every day and serve other people. Find a way to get up, get dressed, put your makeup on and get outside of yourself.

“If you’re just in a fetal position in a dark room somewhere, it’s harder to keep moving forward,” she said. “Then to have these two small children who were depending on me to move forward in some way, I just had this peace about it.”

Having found a way forward after Jeremy’s death, Letlow knew she would have the strength to do so after the loss of her husband.

She met with her parents to seek their assent to run for Luke’s seat.

“We said, ‘Go for it. You can do this,’” remembered her father, Terry Barnhill. “We felt like she would be good for the state.”

“Julia is a thinker,” said her mother, Kathi Barnhill. “She really tries to check all angles with things. Running through her mind was she had two little babies, and she was the sole bread winner.”

Then she met with Luke’s parents.

“I didn’t want somebody who just showed up to run,” recalled Johnny Letlow, Luke’s father. “A local politician did a poll a day or two later. We told her she had our blessings.”

“OK, Doc, let’s go do this,” she said.

Letlow had to move quickly. The qualifying period was less than two weeks away.

She immediately faced pushback from people who said she couldn’t campaign for and represent a sprawling district in Washington as a single mother with two small children.

“Her attitude was: I’ve got to have a job,” said her mother Kathi, and friends and family could help with the children.

Today, favored to become one of the 100 senators, Letlow believes she made the right choice to run for the House seat five years ago.

“I know there will be future valleys,” she said. “But there are also mountaintops. Joy is a choice. I wake up every day determined to choose joy. I hope people see it in me and can feel it when they interact with me.”