David Baria

In 2007, Baria ran for district 46 of the Mississippi Senate and defeated James Overstreet, 77% to 23%.[5] He attributes his initial call to public service to seeing and experiencing the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Baria represented the 46th District from 2008 to 2011. The American Lung Association and the American Federation of Teachers awarded Baria with selective legislative awards for his work in the Senate.[6]

Baria ran for the 122nd district of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2011, and defeated his Republican challenger Dorothy Wilcox 58% to 41%.[5] Baria was then reelected to district 122 in 2015 after narrowly defeating Republican Mickey Lagasse 51% to 49%,[5] after Governor Phil Bryant and Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves campaigned for Lagasse.[7]

Baria was a member of five different committees in the House: Appropriations, Universities and Colleges, Judiciary B, Judiciary En Banc, and Youth and Family Services.[5] Baria was selected as one of three Democratic Floor Leaders for the Mississippi House Democratic Caucus in 2012, and in 2016 his colleagues selected him to serve as Minority Leader.[8]

Since Hurricane Katrina, Baria has introduced several bills to cap the premiums that insurance companies can charge for homeowners and flood insurance.[9]

Baria has also introduced legislation to create a "Policy Holder's Bill of Rights," which would prohibit "anti-concurrent causation clauses," which allow insurance companies to avoid paying for any damage to homes where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property.[10]

In 2015, Baria introduced a bill to require that 80% of the funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill be sent back to the Gulf Coast.[7] The bill was defeated by the Republican controlled legislature, however, which opted to keep the money in the state's general fund.[11] Baria renewed these efforts in 2017 with the support of several Republican legislators from the Gulf Coast, but they were unsuccessful.[12]

In 2010, Baria proposed bills in the senate offering tax incentives for homeowners who install solar power,[13] as well as allowing net metering.[14]

After joining the Mississippi House in 2012, Baria successfully sponsored a bill to require safety enclosures for swimming pools.[5] That same year, he introduced several other bills, including bills to increase the death benefit payable to law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty; authorize individuals to brew beer at home; create a "Patient's Bill of Rights; prohibit smoking in certain public places and private places of employment; and create a state version of the False Claims Act to allow whistleblowers who report fraud against the government to collect part of the award.[5] All of these bills died in committee, however.[5]

After controversy in 2012 over then-Governor Haley Barbour's pardon of two convicted murderers who worked at the Mississippi Governor's Mansion,[15] Baria introduced legislation prohibiting governors from issuing pardons during the last 90 days of their term.[5] The bill died in committee.

In 2015, Baria filed a bill to legalize industrial hemp production,[16] and in 2017 Baria filed bills to raise the minimum wage and require equal pay for men and women performing the same work.[17] The Republican controlled legislature blocked these efforts, however.

Baria penned an op-ed after the 2017 murder of a protester during the Unite the Right rally, calling for the state to remove the Confederate imagery from the Mississippi state flag.[18][19]

In 2018, Baria voted for a bill to exempt recent college graduates from state income taxes if they stay in the state for three years after graduation from a four-year college or university and to grant them an additional two-year exemption if they buy a house or establish a business with at least one additional employee.[20]

During his tenure, Baria has been a vocal critic of the corporate tax cuts passed by the Republican controlled legislature,[21] stating that they deprive the state of revenue that could be used to pay for other state programs.[22] He has also been a vocal supporter of expanding Medicaid to cover more than 300,000 Mississippians who lack health insurance.[23] Baria also supports state-funded universal preschool and two tuition-free years of community college.[24]

On February 28, 2018, Baria declared his candidacy for the Senate seat held by Republican Roger Wicker.[25] On June 26, he defeated businessman and venture capitalist Howard Sherman in a runoff to officially claim the Democratic nomination. James Carville was an unpaid campaign consultant and has held New Orleans fundraisers for the candidate.[26] Baria finished second of four candidates, getting 39.1% of the vote.

On March 1, 2019, with the publishing of both political parties' nomination lists, it was revealed that Baria chose not to seek re-election to the 122nd district.[2] Had he run, Baria would have faced a Republican challenger Brent Anderson, the public works director of Waveland, Mississippi.[27] Wendy McDonald was the Democratic candidate in November's general election.[2]