William Atkins (Louisiana politician)

William B. Atkins, Sr. (born June 20, 1947),^[1] is a businessman from Jonesville in Catahoula Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who served for single terms, consecutively, in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1980 to 1984^[2] and the Louisiana State Senate from 1984 to 1988.^[3]

A Democrat, Atkins succeeded District 21 Representative Dan Richey, then of Ferriday in Concordia Parish, who left the House after one term to run successfully for the District 32 seat in the state Senate. Then in the 1983 primary election Atkins unseated Richey after one term in the Senate by a huge margin, 28,724 (64.6 percent) to 15,776 (35.5 percent). This was the same election in which former Governor Edwin Edwards staged his comeback against Republican David C. Treen.^[4] Four years later, Steve D. Thompson, a real estate agent from Winnsboro in Franklin Parish then unseated Atkins after a single Senate term in the 1987 primary. Thompson received 21,576 votes (50.27 percent) in a four-candidate field. Atkins trailed with 15,988 (37.3 percent), nearly the same total that Richey had polled in 1983. No runoff election was required because Thompson received an outright majority of the votes cast.^[5]

Atkins attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.^[6]He formerly owned the Miss-Lou Truck Stop, Inc., in Vidalia in Concordia Parish, which was incorporated in 1994 but is inactive.^[7] He owns the Miss Lou Internet Service at 521 Main Street in Natchez, Mississippi.^[8]

Since leaving the legislature, Atkins has contributed to a former House colleague, Francis C. Thompson, now a state senator, who ran unsuccessfully in 1996 against Republican John Cooksey for Louisiana's 5th congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives.^[9]

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