Julie Stokes

Julie Skinner Stokes (born January 1970), is a Certified Public Accountant from Kenner in suburban Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, who is a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 79.^[1] She won a special election held on March 2, 2013, to replace fellow Republican Tony Ligi, who resigned from office to become director of the Jefferson Business Council. On the same day that Stokes was elected, another Republican Barry Ivey, won the special election in District 65 to choose a successor to the ailing Republican Clif Richardson.

By defeating three fellow Republicans, Stokes received 55 percent of the vote to fill the nearly three years remaining in Ligi's term. Businessman Jack Rizzuto, a candidate defeated by Ligi in 2007, finished second in the 2013 contest with 31 percent of the ballots cast. Allison Bent Bowler, the chief financial officer at Ben Franklin High School in New Orleans received 9 percent of the vote.^[2] No Democrat ran for the position.^[3]

Stokes is the daughter and only child of Doris Guerin Skinner, a Metairie native, and the late Edward Thomas Skinner.^[4] In 1992, Stokes received her Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of New Orleans. From 2000 to 2010, she operated Julie S. Stokes, CPA, but thereafter became the chief financial officer of Stokes & Associates. She is also a tax preparer.^[5]She is in business with her husband, Larry S. Stokes (born September 30, 1955); the couple has two children, Brandon and Taylor Stokes.^[4]

In her freshman legislative year in 2013, Representative Stokes was rated at 71 percent by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.^[6]Stokes serves on the Health & Welfare, Labor & Industrial Relations, and Ways & Means committees.^[7]

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