In the state of Louisiana, Republicans control the House and the Senate. Republicans, but not conservatives.

The plague of politics in the south is that, in many areas, people run as a Republican in order to get elected, and their powerful friends keep them in power. One of those people is state Senator Fred Mills of St. Martin Parish, a man who was a Democrat until 2010 and switched parties to continue getting elected in a part of the state that is as deep red as you can get.

Mills is the chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and he’s a classic example of the term “RINO,” but yesterday he proved that he’s more than just that – he’s willing to side with Democrats on an extreme issue like the trans movement. A bill that overwhelmingly passed the Louisiana House (with Democrat votes!) was before his committee on Wednesday. That bill would have banned sex changes for any child under 18 years old. It had support from all corners of the state. Bt Mills joined the four Democrats on the committee to kill the bill.

BREAKING: After passing the House, a bill in Louisiana that would have banned pediatric sex changes just failed in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee because 'Republican' State Senator Fred Mills voted with Democrats to kill it.

One look at his donors shows massive… pic.twitter.com/JFhBvHc5q4

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 24, 2023

As a career pharmacist, those big donation dollars from Big Pharma are certainly interesting, aren’t they?

Mills has been facing a lot of blowback from conservatives in the state and online. Scott McKay, who runs the conservative website The Hayride, wrote this following the vote:

This wasn’t just some left-wing fraud politician voting to screw the vast majority of constituents, perhaps at the beck and call of the profiteering drug companies. Something else was at work.

Mills is finished in politics in two weeks. But there are 26 other Republicans in that Senate, and what Fred Mills did was to insulate them from having to make a floor vote on that bill.

Because the state senate in Louisiana is used to being protected by its leadership from having to make difficult floor votes. It’s a tradition in that body to pamper senators and give them an easy ride.

Conservative radio host Moon Griffon spent nearly his entire two-hour statewide broadcast Thursday morning attacking Mills, outraged over the vote. But, like McKay, Griffon noted that Mills is doing the bidding of leadership – also Republican in name only – instead of his voters.

He’s also been getting blowback nationally. And his response is ridiculous.

I asked Sen. Fred Mills if he was worried about what @MattWalshBlog and other national conservatives were saying about him after his vote yesterday. “Why should I? They don’t live in District 22. They don’t have a 337 area code,” he said. #lalege #lagov https://t.co/G73HnL6Vb5

— Piper Hutchinson (@ByPiperHutch) May 25, 2023

The people of the 337 area code have been trying to call his offices in the district. The voicemails are full. The office can’t hear from anyone when no one will answer and no one can leave a message. It’s ridiculous to pretend to care what his district is saying.

The vote was outrageous, to say the least, and proves that Republicans can never truly move the state forward so long as it is filled with politicians and not conservatives. These are people who routinely lie about who they are and what they believe. Voters – and, in this case, children – will suffer because a Republican who is term-limited in office wanted to save his also-RINO colleagues from a tough vote. That isn’t representation, and that’s not the job he was sent to do.

Mills’ political career was already over, but in that lame-duck mentality, he is siding with Democrats on the literal mutilation of children. This is a medical practice that, in the field, is controversial at best. In Europe, a region of the world where even their conservatives tend to be a lot more progressive than ours, medical experts are warning that the practices of hormone therapy and pediatric “trans-care” surgery are unproven. But the hyper-woke in the U.S. medical community and progressive circles are all on board.

That’s a threat to so many American kids. This is the worst vote Mills could have made, and he did so without hesitation.