John Cooksey (born August 20, 1941) is an opthalmologist from Monroe who was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana from 1997-2003. Cooksey was born in Alexandria. He graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1962. From 1967 until 1969, he was in the United States Air Force.
He was elected to Congress in 1996 and represented Louisiana's Fifth District from January 3, 1997 until January 3, 2003. Cooksey won the seat in 1996 over the Democrat Francis Thompson of Delhi in Richland Parish. He had edged past former Represenative Clyde C. Holloway of Forest Hill in the jungle primary.
In 2002, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the jungle primary for the U.S. seat still held by Democrat Mary Landrieu. In the campaign, Cooksey made a remark about Arabs wearing turbans, which was claimed by his opponents as symbolic of ethnic prejudice. He never overcame the blunder. In the senatorial general election, the losing Republican candidate was Cooksey's intraparty rival, Suzanne Haik Terrell of New Orleans.
In addition to the reelection of Landrieul, the Democrats temporarily regained Cooksey's House seat in the same general election balloting. Cooksey retired from politics and resumed his medical practice.
