The Strategy
In his time on the Lafayette Parish Council, current District 43 State Representative Josh Carlson led the way in transforming the composition of the LPL Board of Control. Beginning with Landon Boudreaux in 2020, Carlson consistently and systematically nominated and voted for conservative, overtly Christian nationalist board members who had a singular mission – to promote censorship at the Lafayette Public Library. Divergence from the strategy was not tolerated; when the Mayor-President’s nominee refused to go along with the agenda, Carlson had the Mayor’s appointment removed.
Current library board member Allan Moore is a big fan of Josh Carlson.
That mission continued when Carlson was elected to the state legislature in 2023. In his very first regular session (2024), he authored bills to both remove the requirement that library directors in Louisiana have master’s degrees in library science, as well as a bill that would have allowed public librarians to be charged with obscenity.
Josh Carlson accepts an award for outstanding public service from Michael Lunsford of Citizens for a New Louisiana, who filed multiple book challenges at LPL in 2021.
Is Carlson Still Appointing Board Members?
Fast forward to August 5, 2025 when the Parish Council voted to appoint Christopher Holmes to fill the seat being vacated by Robert Judge. Curiously, Holmes, who has never been to a board meeting and did not show up to the Council meeting during which he was appointed, has deep financial and political ties to Carlson. In addition to his (pastorship? pastorhood?), Holmes, mostly through his multimedia company Bayou Creative, has done a large amount of videography and photography for Carlson’s campaigns, as well as directly contributing money to his parish council election:
Holmes contributed $1000 to Carlson’s 2019 Parish Council campaign.
Holmes’ In-Kind contribution to Carlson’s 2023 legislative campaign.
Bayou Creative as a Silver Sponsor at Carlson’s 2024 skeet shoot fundraiser.
Of course, Carlson does not currently sit on the Parish Council, and so had no direct vote with regards to Holmes’ appointment. None of this is illegal, nor are we trying to imply that Rep. Carlson has committed any crimes. We do, however, feel that the public has a right to know when close allies of public library opponents are appointed as trustees of our library system. Carlson has spent the better part of the last decade actively working to harm our libraries. Now his buddy Chris Holmes gets to continue that mission. Coincidence? We’ll let you decide.