Senator Jean-Paul Coussan Contact information

Jean-Paul Philip Coussan, known as JP Coussan, was born on August 31, 1978. He is an American lawyer, small business owner, and Republican politician from Lafayette, Louisiana. Since 2024, he has represented District 23 in the Louisiana Senate. Before that, he represented District 45 in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 2016 to 2024.

Coussan’s paternal grandfather, G. Louis Coussan, was a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the dean of the college of education there. His grandmother, Mary B. Coussan, taught for the Lafayette Parish School Board. His father, Dr. George Coussan, a radiologist, quarterbacked the ULL Ragin’ Cajuns, when the team played in the Grantland Rice Bowl in Baton Rouge in 1970. His mother, the former Jo Ellen Becnel, is a real estate broker for Van Eaton & Romero in Lafayette.

Coussan and his wife, Jennifer Joy, have three children, and attend Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Lafayette. Coussan graduated from the Catholic-affiliated St. Thomas More High School in Lafayette and then Louisiana State University and the Louisiana State University Law Center, both in Baton Rouge.

A partner at the Lafayette real estate law firm, Andrus Boudreaux Complete Title, Coussan also co-founded Cougar Construction. He was formerly affiliated with Ottinger Hebert, LLC, at which his clients came mainly from oil and natural gas. He previously served on the commission overseeing the Lafayette Cajundome. His other affiliations include the Chamber of Commerce, the Acadian Homebuilders Association, the Chamber of Commerce, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Boy Scouts of America.

Coussan won his seat in a runoff election held on November 21, 2015, over fellow Republican Andre’ Comeaux. The two had emerged as the top two candidates from the October 24 primary election in which a third contender, Republican Jan Swift, was eliminated from further consideration. In his freshman term, Coussan has proved to be a competent negotiator in the Legislature, often working behind the scenes to affect change. He was part of the “Gang of Eight” as described by political columnist Jeremy Alford, who led the charge in 2016 to elect Taylor Barras as the first independent Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, bucking the tradition of supporting the governor’s chosen leader.