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Ross Shales
Ross Shales (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Louisiana's 1st Congressional District. He lost in the primary on November 5, 2024.
Shales completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ross Shales served in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 2012. He earned a high school diploma from Archbishop Shaw High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University in 1985, and an M.A. from the Notre Dame Seminary Graduate School of Theology in 2001. His career experience includes working as an insurance agency owner.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Louisiana's 1st Congressional District election, 2024
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 1
Incumbent Steve Scalise won election outright against Mel Manuel, Randall Arrington, Ross Shales, and Frankie Hyers in the primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 1 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Steve Scalise (R) | 66.8 | 238,842 |
 | Mel Manuel (D)  | 24.0 | 85,911 | |
 | Randall Arrington (R) | 5.0 | 17,856 | |
 | Ross Shales (R) | 2.3 | 8,330 | |
 | Frankie Hyers (Unaffiliated) | 1.9 | 6,781 | |
| Total votes: 357,720 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Shales in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ross Shales completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shales' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from LSU and a master’s from Notre Dame Seminary (No, I was not studying to be a priest.) I have spent much of my life as an educator, teaching in Plaquemines and Jefferson Parish schools. I was an instructor in the military as part of my 22 years of service, I taught Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes in several churches, and I currently head continuing education classes with real estate agents as part of our insurance agency’s connection to that industry. I really love engaging with people in matters of learning. I passionately believe that we are living in a time of wonderful opportunities. We have some tough challenges as well, but the real fact is we have the chance and the responsibility to become the next Great Generation.
I believe I have the integrity, vision and drive to help lead, and I can only help lead, we very much need all our determined input, to lift our district, Louisiana, and the U.S. to new heights.- I am running as the protest Republican candidate, and I want to put the GOP back on track. I am firmly convinced my party has placed all its time, money and energy on a bad horse named Donald Trump, and I am here to tell my party and the public it has done so and can do better.
I want to lead our party away from the path of fear and anger and misinformation as presented by the current GOP candidate for the White House and the incumbent of this district to one of courage and vision. Louisiana needs leaders, who will diligently seek the best solutions for its people and the nation. That is not currently happening in our party or this district.
Louisiana has many challenges today, as WE well know. Let's face them and beat them together. - Increased federal funding for jobs training with an emphasis on 2-year college training programs: World conditions and capitalism specifically are going to forever require us individually and as a society to respond to change. Today, in the U.S., many people would probably benefit from technical, 2-year degrees over 4-year diplomas. To help our citizens, young or older, respond to these challenges, I want to make financial support available for that training. Time and again we hear employers complain about not being able to find trained personnel. Our assistance in these areas will support our citizens' efforts to live their best lives while growing Louisiana's economy, as we transition to clean energy and natural gas.
- Federal tax breaks for Fortified Roofs and more grants to raise homes to help Louisianians attain less expensive property and flood insurance: While our citizens are helping meet America’s and the world’s energy needs, while we maintain vital ports across our state's coastline, while we supply much of the nation's seafood and sugar, we are arguably the most exposed to weather catastrophes tied to hurricanes and flooding. And yes, global warming almost certainly is contributing to these worsening risks. I believe we need more federal support to build stronger roofs and to raise homes, as we also personally and responsibly endeavor to mitigate our risks to rising waters and high winds.
I believe that today in a world that presents to us tremendously more ideas and truths and pieces of truths and lies, we need more leaders like Lincoln, who are willing to persevere amidst a myriad of activities and to stand up to peoples who are not filling the bill, both within and without their party.
The Louisiana 1st Congressional District Representative must honestly address matters of public import. Our current representative in no way does that. Steve Scalise has yet to publicly admit that the 2020 election was valid, which it was. Scalise refuses to legitimately address the root causes of our last 4 years of higher inflation, the reality of human-caused global warming or the complexity of immigration. Our inflation is primarily tied to COVID and the large amount of money that the Trump and Biden administrations correctly passed out to maintain our economy. Human caused global warming is already affecting the people of South Louisiana, and we need to soberly address this matter, understanding that our economy is closely tied to oil production and natural gas, a potential global energy transition source. While we as a nation do not want people indiscriminately crossing our borders, immigrants are not a major criminal threat, yet we need them to help continue to grow our economy.
A politician needs to maintain the strength to be a leader and not just a wet finger in the wind and to stand up for what he/she knows to be the most true, and at times must be willing to challenge incorrect ideas of constituents, to include the plethora of illegitimate conspiracy theories that are pervading our party's culture. There can be no peace between the parties until our party fixes itself on these types of matters.
I would endeavor to introduce and support bills and serve on committees that benefit the general good of our district and/or the nation, working hard to coordinate these efforts with Louisiana's other representatives to ensure we were operating with an economy of force to achieve the most for our state and the same for our region.
I would act very reservedly concerning resolutions, neither bringing to the floor nor supporting legislation that is decidedly political rather than just. You will not see me unduly castigating fellow representatives or government employees, which I consider to be bullying. The censuring of Adam Schiff was wrong, dishonest and foolish, as Schiff ended up gaining sympathetic support locally (California) for the very apparent misdeed by the GOP and is now the odds-on favorite to be that state's next U.S. Senator. Excellent work by the Republicans.
And understand, the "Great Generation's" challenges were more tangible. Those people pulled themselves out of the Great Depression and then fought against the machinations of people they could see and hear.
Our challenges are really more about ourselves. Do we acknowledge the challenges? How we react to them? Do we seek the fullest truths of our challenges? If we can get past our fears and anger and our shallower first impressions, if we can dig deeper into the matters for the truest truths, we can readily meet any challenge I have cited.....................and we can.
I have walked the Halls of Congress, and they are full of activity. I believe the key to meaningful change is hard-working, intelligent, well-meaning people endeavoring to see good things done. That goal must be achieved within the framework of 435 people comprising the House which has to reach an agreement with the Senate and, ultimately, the President. Which means all of the "great ideas" springing forth from these representatives still must be yoked to a sense of diplomacy and cooperation in order to achieve these ends.
However, experience is not necessary. If it was, we should never elect a new person for a political office.
And there are other very important factors, business experience can be a key asset to bring into the political arena. I have been a business owner for 15 years and have worked in the business arena another 15 years, including 20 with a Fortune 500 company.
My 22 years in the military gave me important exposure to the government and understanding how such a large arm of the Executive Branch fits into the big picture of our nation.
Equally important is what does a politician do with the experience he/she has gained? Does that person continue to seek to grow, or is he/she jaded to the point that this politician places party and disinformation over the nation's wellbeing? Does the politician know how to make the system work or does the politician seek to make the system work for our general benefit? From what I can see in a state like Louisiana, I don't think our current representative is adequately meeting the needs of our people. How many people in his district would benefit from the SNAP benefits being held up by the GOP, and our guy is the GOP Whip, in the current Farm Bill?
Energy transitioning in the face of human-caused global warming, Louisiana citizens are some of the first in this country to feel the effects of global warming and climate change. I would suggest that we follow Texas, who is the nation's leader for carbon free energy production. We are already moving in that direction with future offshore wind turbines, solar farms and our increasing production and transportation of the transition energy, natural gas.
Infrastructure is an investment in ourselves, and I want to continue to support the rebuilding and improvement of our nation's core components in all feasible areas.
I want to help lead our nation's healthy transition to a more plural society with an immigration program that seeks to protect our borders while fairly improving and expediting immigrants' citizenship path. In the face of an aging culture, our continued economic growth and a stable social security system will partly rest on a sound immigration program that gives us more contributing Americans.
I also want to ensure the reasonable protection of our labor force in all ways possible. Arguably the toughest part of business leaders' jobs is finding and maintaining stable employees. What can we do to best support the nation's workforce?
But then I decided it was a mistake to leave my party rather than to stay and fight. So, I'm back, ready to tell the GOP that it is putting its money on a bad, bad horse. Donald Trump is going to lose this election, and the GOP will have wasted another four years of America's time in our party's misefforts.
Instead of a campaign of fear and anger and a strong reticence to change, I want to help lead our people to be courageous and to embrace the ever-realities of change. I spent decades in small business, in big business and in the Army, change is going to happen, and we must be ready to anticipate and react to these changes. Doing so has been a historical strength of Americans.
For my whole life I have heard, read and watched the stories of "The Great Generation,” the people who got us through World War II. I want us to be the next Great Generation, I want us to bravely face our challenges, evolving capitalism, an accelerating technological world, global warming, an aging population, immigration, a plural culture. I know that we can better face these challenges than we are. One thing we need are leaders with the courage to recognize the challenges and to charismatically communicate the necessity and the good of leaning into them to help us reach our fullest potential. I ask everyone this one question, "Why Can't We Be Great?"
While I do appreciate the value and the need for the occasional protest vote or voting based on reasonable principles, Congressmembers, who simply shut down government based on unrealistic goals are not achieving any good. There are too many important matters that need to be addressed to waste the time of our nation. Senator Tuberville's holds on military promotions as an objection to the Pentagon abortion policy greatly set back the readiness of our military, all because this politician wanted something he simply was not going to get.
Using fellow Americans' money for government actions is a sacred responsibility, and I would act with care.
Historically, the House has conducted some very important examinations. In 1912-1923 the House Pujo Committee (named after Louisiana Congressman, Arsene Pujo) learned that a small group of Wall Street banks had secretly gained control over vast commercial enterprises. The findings inspired support for the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment that authorized a federal income tax, passage of the Federal Reserve Act, and passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act.
The Watergate hearings, back when Congress acted in a much more bi-partisan manner, investigated the wrongdoings of President Nixon and preceded his resignation from office.
However, too often I witness the House conduct ridiculous inquiries. GOP Representative, Jim Jordan's investigation of the people who investigated Donald Trump's Russia scandal was a classic scare and bully tactic. The Biden Family investigation was a witch hunt. The Benghazi report of which REP Jordan was also a committee member, was chock full of conspiracy theories.
When we consider how hard it is to achieve sound legislation, to get it out of committee, then on the floor of the House, then reach an agreement with the Senate, and finally, the President, I simply cannot stomach the wasting of our people's precious time and money on anything that is not genuinely serious and being conducted for the proper reasons, politics for politics sake not being one of them. And yes, the two impeachments of President Trump were very justified.
By the way, after visiting each committee website I feel the need to point out that the Way and Means Committee site is giving a complete disservice to the American people, as it is little more than a Republican partisan bully (Emphasis on "bully") pulpit with a link to the Biden Impeachment Inquiry, and numerous featured hit articles against the Biden Administration or pro-GOP/Trump pieces. I would suggest that this site should be more educational and neutral and see no reason why an American wanting to learn about this committee should spend any time here. You can learn much more about the committee than this site at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Committee_on_Ways_and_Means. I would love to serve on this very powerful committee, through which much of the House's business runs. I would seek to ensure Ways and Means best served the interest of the American people via fair taxation methods and dispensing vital information to the public.
I would like to serve on the Appropriations Committee, seeking the opportunity to be at the helm of government where we help determine how the American people's money will be wisely spent. I believe that only the best representatives should be on this committee, people who understand the gravity of this group's power, and I think that I could merit such a position.
Concerning financial transparency, I am of 2 minds. Of course I am in favor of financial transparency, and we have the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. However, the sheer enormity of our budget, to a large degree, renders the budget hidden in plain sight. How can we really comprehend the details of a budget so large. I believe the real opportunity to gain a more balanced budget will come because of both parties crossing the line to make concessions, and the days of demonizing the other party have to cease to achieve this end. Facing the upcoming September 30, 2024, budget deadline, Steve Scalise has again taken to blaming Democrats for uniformly rejecting the proposed spending bills. However, those bills have included Republican demands to restrict access to abortions pills in the funding for the federal Food and Drug Administration, something the Democrats will never support. We need leadership that is willing to cross lines rather than posture.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Shales’ campaign website stated the following:
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Grants for Hurricane Proof Construction While Louisianans are helping meet America’s and the world’s energy needs, while we maintain what will soon be the most important and extremely vital port in the nation on the Mississippi River in the Greater New Orleans area, while we supply seafood and sugar to the nation, we are arguably the most exposed to weather catastrophes tied to hurricanes and flooding in general. And yes, climate change almost certainly is making these risks worse. Louisianians need more federal support to protect their homes via flood mitigation through the FEMA program, to include grants for raising homes. I would also submit to Congress a path to grants or tax breaks to encourage and help our residents replace their current roofs with fortified roofs. As a state, we need to endeavor to mitigate our exposure to flooding and high winds, and our future construction projects need to seek housing on higher grounds or buildings built higher. Our construction needs to be more hurricane proof. I would seek to ensure our transition to less damage by bringing in federal assistance to help us help ourselves. Financial Support for Job Training World conditions and capitalism specifically are going to forever require us individually and as a society to respond to change. Today, in the U.S., many people would probably benefit from technical, 2-year degrees over 4-year diplomas. To help our citizens, young or older, respond to these challenges, I want to make financial support available for that training. Time and again we hear employers complain about not being able to find trained personnel. Our assistance in these areas will support our citizens' efforts to live their best lives while growing Louisiana's economy, as we transition to clean energy and natural gas. Term Limits On a bi-partisan level I believe the American people want term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court. When the founders of our nation drew up the Constitution, they likely were not anticipating office incumbents living so long they could affect more than one generation. I would propose a limit of 4 terms for U.S. Senators and 6 terms for Representatives. At the same time, I would seek to increase the congressional term periods from 2 years to 4 years, thereby moving that office out of the current situation where members of Congress are perpetually running for re-election. I would also seek to term limit Supreme Court justices to 25 years. On these issues, all existing members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices would be grandfathered out of these new term limits because, pragmatically, it would be much harder to get current members of Congress to support these measures if they were applied to themselves. There is a key reason why I consider this measure to be so important, I believe too many Americans think that they cannot affect government. I want our citizens to understand that they are the key to our nation’s success, and their voice is important. Coming together to create an amendment would go far in proving this fact to ourselves. Natural Gas Development Scientifically, it is a fact that human-caused, carbon energy-based use is expediting the warming of our atmosphere, which is causing substantial challenges to our planet, our ecology and to Louisianians way of life. We should be transitioning to carbon-free and less-carbon heavy energy sources. Texas, which shares our history of oil production, is now the nation’s largest carbon-free energy producer in the nation. Louisiana is moving to construct wind turbines and is already establishing solar farms. Louisiana is already a large exporter of liquified natural gas out of Lake Charles and will soon be doing the same in Plaquemines Parish. While natural gas is obviously not as carbon-free as wind or solar power, its use emits 50% less carbon than coal use and 30% less than oil. As the world economy seeks growth, especially with developing nations, natural gas presents an opportunity to tone down carbon use, and Louisiana is ready to contribute to that transition. People around the world seek more prosperity. I support Louisiana’s part in this development. Immigration Program The largest challenges facing China, Russia and Japan are their declining populations. China is forecasted to lose more than half of its population by the end of the century. Japan has been losing people since 2008. Russia is slated to lose population, too, as is Europe despite many immigrants entering that continent. Capitalism generally performs best with a growing population, and the only reason the United States’ population is slated to grow will be because of immigrants entering the country. We need an immigration program that seeks to create a viable border control plan while formalizing a process to include processing people, over time, into pathways for citizenship. Creating more citizens means creating more individuals, who are further invested in our nation, who are taxpayers, and who are contributing to our social security system. Right now, our governor is sending Louisiana National Guard troops to the Texas border to stop people from crossing the border. Meanwhile, Louisiana is the number two state in the country for population loss. We need a growing number of people who want to be Louisianians. We need entry-level employees. We need younger people coming in who may one day purchase our homes. Remember this, before anyone ever heard of Texas, the Spanish, after the Indigenous Americans, were first setting foot in our future state. The name Gonzales is Spanish. Marrero is Spanish. They’re also Louisiana names. We have a history with that culture, and it nests nicely with our current culture. National Debt All Americans are concerned about our national debt. Currently, we are approaching $35 trillion dollars of debt. Over recent decades, it is clear both parties are responsible for the large debt, each for its own reasons. I am ready to make hard decisions for lowering spending, when we can do so, and based on reasonable bi-partisan efforts, however, those efforts need to include opportunities to make cuts in all areas. We need to keep in mind that our country vastly outspends every other country on defense. Accordingly, defense spending should also be on the table for cuts. Furthermore, we should look at the tax breaks for the richest people in our nation. Are they paying their fair share for their access to the infrastructure, programs, services and people to which our country gives them? 2nd Amendment & Mental Health I think that achieving a rewrite of the 2nd Amendment would be a good bit harder than an amendment for term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court. However, because of the broad, imprecise language of the 2nd Amendment, unless we address the 2nd Amendment itself, we cannot expect any real agreement or finality about the freedom to own and possess weapons, or parameters for gun safety. It is evident that our country appreciates and practices its collective rights to own guns. The U.S. population represents a little over 4% of the world’s and owns 46% of the world’s guns. At the same time, there is strong, bi-partisan support for some gun safety measures. Time and time again, we are seeing courts strike down gun laws created by communities. Unless we go to the source of this matter, the 2nd Amendment, we cannot achieve what I think are some reasonable opportunities to lower our gun violence levels. One more thing, after horrible gunfire incidents, we often hear politicians state that an individual’s mental illness led to the horrible event. I agree, and believe we need to ensure people have reasonable access to mental health support. Abortion While I believe that life begins at conception and science is continuing to prove this matter by successfully saving the lives of prematurely born babies at earlier and earlier ages, I also firmly believe that women should have the right to some point in the pregnancy to decide if they want to have a child. Therefore, I would support a ban on abortions after 21 weeks, but only with the broadest of language to allow for abortions after that period if the pregnancy were a risk to the mother’s health, or if the fetus’ chance of survival were minimal. Project 2025 There cannot be enough ways to count how bad the 2025 Presidential Transition Project (If Donald Trump is re-elected) or Project 2025 will be for our country. Every serious person in this country should be researching this initiative. To just name 5 items on its agenda, the plan calls for: 1. Partisan control of the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (under which is the National Flood Insurance Program). 2. It proposes reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil services workers in the Executive Department as political appointees that would allow them to be replaced by the incoming President. 3. Abolish the Department of Education. 4. Cut climate research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (The people who track hurricanes). 5. Cut Medicare and Medicaid and explicitly reject abortion as health care. I abjectly reject the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and believe many people on a winning Donald Trump administration would be trying to enact it. Further, I would question Congressman Scalise concerning his stance on Project 2025. Israeli/Palestinian Conflict There may be no harder area on which to arrive at an equitable solution than the Israeli/Palestinian struggle. Both sides have committed war crimes, and war crimes are never acceptable as retaliation for the other side’s atrocities. I would call for the immediate cessation of fighting and especially the indiscriminate killing of civilians through the firing of indirect weapons (mortars, artillery, non-smart aerial bombing). I would also seek the quickest opportunity to emplace United Nations forces as a buffer between the two sides. Russia I was stationed in the Army in Germany, when the Berlin Wall came down. I saw the East Germans flood across the border into freedom. We celebrated that moment. I have a question for us. I have a question for the Russian people. Why didn’t Russia join NATO? I expect my position here will be met with the most skepticism, however, I believe there is a real opportunity for our country to achieve a strategic victory, if we can gain lasting peace with Russia. The fact of the matter is that China is Russia’s greatest threat. They share a 2,600-mile border. They have a long history of tension, and numerous times China was forced to cede land to the Russians. China is a growing threat to Russia, economically and politically in Central Asia, and Chinese citizens maintain a strong presence in Eastern Russia. There is little reason for the West to have a conflict with Russia, and I think that we can achieve a quick peace with the Russian people while maintaining a political relationship with Ukraine. And I believe that we can, if Russia is ready for it, join Russia as an ally. If we could achieve this end, and I need to point out, not by surrendering to Russian aggression, imagine the federal dollars saved or able to be redirected to our people in so many fruitful ways. Republican Party The Grand Old Party has its roots standing tall in the face of unfairness and lies. One of my heroes, President Lincoln, endeavored in a maelstrom of diverging values and intentions to hold the nation together. I challenge anyone desiring or holding this office to maintain the same standards on important factors that underly the health of our nation including: 1. Was the 2020 Presidential election conducted fairly? The 2020 Presidential election was conducted fairly. We lost. We needed a better candidate. 2. Is human-caused climate change a reality with which we need to engage? Humans are affecting the planet to the point that we are expediting a general global warming, which is the gist of the climate changes we are experiencing. Humans can and are taking positive measures to reduce and maybe, in the future, reverse our damage. 3. What is your position on Project 2025? As noted before, I stand staunchly against any aspect of Project 2025. I am here to promote the truth and to work with it, not to encourage lies, conspiracies or to placate someone’s false ideas. Louisiana deserves a leader representative who will work with our citizens to face the many challenges we are and will be facing. I believe I am that person. |
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| —Shales' campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Louisiana District 1 |
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Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 3, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ross Shales' campaign website, “Platform,” accessed September 24, 2024
