David Wayne Baria (born December 4, 1962) is an American politician, attorney, and former contractor. A trial lawyer by trade, Baria was a Democratic member of the Mississippi House of Representatives representing the 122nd district until the end of the 2019 legislative session. He also served as the House Minority Leader. Baria was a member of the Mississippi Senate before he was elected to the retiring J. P. Compretta's seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives. Baria was the Democratic nominee for the 2018 United States Senate election in Mississippi.
Baria is the former chairman of the NCSL Gulf and Atlantic States Task Force. He is also a member of the National Conference of Environmental Legislators, Bay St. Louis Rotary Club, Leadership Hancock County, Mississippi Bar, and a fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. The Board of United Policyholders, a national advocacy group for insureds, includes Baria on their board of directors. He was also chairman of the Hancock County Youth Court Task Force dedicated to combatting the foster care crisis in that area. In March 2019, Baria announced he would not seek re-election to the legislature.
Early life and education
Baria was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1962. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Juris Doctor at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
Career
Mississippi Senate
In 2007, Baria ran for district 46 of the Mississippi Senate and defeated James Overstreet, 77% to 23%. He attributes his initial call to public service to seeing and experiencing the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Baria represented the 46th District from 2008 to 2011. The American Lung Association and the American Federation of Teachers awarded Baria with selective legislative awards for his work in the Senate.
Mississippi House of Representatives
Baria ran for the 122nd district of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2011, and defeated his Republican challenger Dorothy Wilcox 58% to 41%. Baria was then reelected to district 122 in 2015 after narrowly defeating Republican Mickey Lagasse 51% to 49%, after Governor Phil Bryant and Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves campaigned for Lagasse.
Baria was a member of five different committees in the House: Appropriations, Universities and Colleges, Judiciary B, Judiciary En Banc, and Youth and Family Services. Baria was selected as one of three Democratic Floor Leaders for the Mississippi House Democratic Caucus in 2012, and in 2016 his colleagues selected him to serve as Minority Leader.
Insurance reform
Since Hurricane Katrina, Baria has introduced several bills to cap the premiums that insurance companies can charge for homeowners and flood insurance.
Baria has also introduced legislation to create a "Policy Holder's Bill of Rights," which would prohibit "anti-concurrent causation clauses," which allow insurance companies to avoid paying for any damage to homes where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property.
BP oil spill settlement
In 2015, Baria introduced a bill to require that 80% of the funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill be sent back to the Gulf Coast. The bill was defeated by the Republican controlled legislature, however, which opted to keep the money in the state's general fund. Baria renewed these efforts in 2017 with the support of several Republican legislators from the Gulf Coast, but they were unsuccessful.
Other legislation and policy positions
In 2010, Baria proposed bills in the senate offering tax incentives for homeowners who install solar power, as well as allowing net metering.
After joining the Mississippi House in 2012, Baria successfully sponsored a bill to require safety enclosures for swimming pools. That same year, he introduced several other bills, including bills to increase the death benefit payable to law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty; authorize individuals to brew beer at home; create a "Patient's Bill of Rights; prohibit smoking in certain public places and private places of employment; and create a state version of the False Claims Act to allow whistleblowers who report fraud against the government to collect part of the award. All of these bills died in committee, however.
After controversy in 2012 over then-Governor Haley Barbour's pardon of two convicted murderers who worked at the Mississippi Governor's Mansion, Baria introduced legislation prohibiting governors from issuing pardons during the last 90 days of their term. The bill died in committee.