WASHINGTON — When the tough-talking former St. Landry Parish sheriff's deputy and viral Crime Stoppers video star Clay Higgins declared his candidacy for Congress late in the 2016 race, he described campaigning for Congress as "descending into the belly of the beast." "I'm descending as a soldier by the will of the people, descending as a warrior armed with the Constitution," Higgins — with a cowboy hat on his head and a chrome-plated semi-automatic pistol strapped to his hip — declared to news cameras and a smattering of supporters.
