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Rep. Edward Gay

Former Representative for Louisiana’s 3rd District

Gay was the representative for Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1889 to 1891.

He was previously the representative for Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1887 to 1889; and the representative for Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district as a Democrat from 1885 to 1887.

Legislators who enslaved Black people

Gay was among more than 1,800 legislators who enslaved Black people. The Washington Post compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents. Gay was one of them.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Dec 1885 to Mar 1889, Gay missed 270 of 626 roll call votes, which is 43.1%. This is worse than the median of 32.3% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Mar 1889. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

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Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: