History

Early Life

Maxen was born to an affluent family of state politicians, lawyers, and real estate developers, and wanted for little as a child. His natural athleticism and large frame made him the star quarterback of his high school’s football team and one of the most popular boys on campus. The sole interruption on his track to success came when he got his girlfriend Diana Flores pregnant during her junior year prom. Maxen helped raise the baby during Diana’s senior year, married her upon graduation, and believed he did the right thing. He was also forced to put his plans with Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish on hold to raise his new family. He enrolled at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and turned down offers to play football professionally for the NFL when four more children followed steadily after the first. After earning his MBA, Maxen went to work full-time at his father’s real estate business.

Political Career

Supporting a wife and five young kids was tough at first for the recent college graduate, even with his family’s not-insignificant advantages, until he made a surprise foray into politics (Maxen’s father had also been a state legislator) and was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1997 at the young age of 25. Although many people assumed Maxen was a staff aide to the actual Representative Flores upon meeting him, Maxen wasn’t slowed down and opportunities seemed to steadily come along after his electoral win. Louisiana graft would always ensure its politicians wanted for little. Tragedy struck when his parents died in a sudden car crash brought about by drunk driving, but Maxen was too occupied by career and his own family to do anything but soldier on. His parents left him everything in their wall (his brother and sister were distinctly displeased to discover this), and he used the large estate’s proceeds to purchase a large and expensive house for his family in Audubon Place, one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

Politically, Maxen aligned himself early on with Nathan Malveaux and supported the one-time gubernatorial candidate’s crusade to flip Louisiana from blue to red. Maxen reluctantly accepted a beta role in that relationship, as the Malveauxes were both richer and more politically entrenched than the Flores, with the understanding that his fortunes would continue to rise as a reward for supporting Nathan’s. Maxen was not disappointed. In 2003, he defeated his Democratic rival (and future governor of Louisiana) Bill Jay Roberts and was elected to the Louisiana State Senate for Senate District 9, which includes Riverbend and the suburb of Metairie.

It was around this time that a car accident crushed his wife Diana’s leg, forcing her to give up her career as a ballerina. The strain that placed on their marriage led to the couple’s quiet divorce. Maxen received full custody of their five children. When pressed, he would admit to close friends that his wife always blamed him for not being able to pursue her dream as a dancer in a more prestigious New York or London production company. He’d done everything he could to ensure she could still be on the stage in New Orleans, and she’d even made principle dancer at her company, but Diana could just never forgive him for how she wasn’t part of a world-famous ballet troupe.

Coming to Power

In some ways, though, Maxen found it helpful to no longer have a marriage distracting him from his political work. (Domestic help took care of the kids.) The mid-late 2000s saw a flurry of activity from Nathan and Maxen that coincided with the rise of the Tea Party Movement and the steady GOP takeover of state legislatures.

In April 2009, a scandal threatened to derail the pair’s ambitions when a video tape circulated of Maxen raping his teenage daughter Isabel. He dismissed the tape as fabricated and too ludicrous to be real: indeed, several other videos were leaked to the press around the same time that showed assorted other politicos (Democrat and Republican) “raping” a very similar-looking teenager. Isabel and her mother Diana also vehemently denied the rape allegations, but this sort of scandal wasn’t possible for a woman to weather like a man could. Maxen quietly sent Isabel abroad to do missionary work in South Sudan. His own plans to challenge Fred Pavaghi for the 2012 gubernatorial nomination, meanwhile, looked dashed when protests and calls for him to resign his senate seat reached outside the walls of Audubon Place: the state party would’ve already been leery about endorsing a primary challenge against an incumbent governor from their party, no matter how obviously corrupt he was. It was, at least, not the first time in his life that Maxen had been told to put his ambitions on hold.

This personal setback aside, the GOP continued a steady takeover statewide offices that culminated in the 2010 elections, which saw both legislative chambers flipped red for the first time since Reconstruction. With Fred Pavaghi already in the governor’s mansion, the Republican takeover of Louisiana was complete. Nathan was elected to federal office in 2012 and Maxen was rewarded for his support with Nathan’s old job as Senate majority leader. Although Fred held a more prominent office, the party establishment held the Pavaghi scion at arm’s length due to his family’s undisguised self-interest and history of bipartisan political support, Fred’s bizarrely evangelical brand of Catholicism, and a relatively obscure earlier legislative career that had done little to contribute to the party’s statewide takeover. Maxen came from an older political name, had tirelessly worked to further the Republican Party’s interests for 15 years, and was Nathan’s designated successor: in many ways, he was now the most influential man in the state GOP.

Holding Power

Maxen assumed the reins of power with gusto and brought the combative, tough guy attitude for which his constituents had continually reelected him to his new duties. The first major political issue he faced was capital punishment’s de facto abolition thanks to the state’s years-long inability to reach a deal with Magadon Incorporated, its only supplier of the drugs used in lethal injections (itself the state’s only legally allowed execution method). Nathan had hammered out a deal with Magadon before leaving office, but Maxen opened talks with Weide GmbH, a rival pharmaceutical company. It took another year of negotiations before Maxen got Magadon to lower its drug prices. He touted it as a win.

The state GOP could not tout as many wins. The sheer blatancy of Fred Pavaghi’s corruption while in office led to Maxen’s former rival Bill Jay Roberts winning the 2015 gubernatorial election. Maxen was incensed to lose the trifecta government he and Nathan had worked so tirelessly to establish. Lamenting that “I have to do everything myself,” he shouldered the additional job of party chairman to better coordinate the GOP’s statewide activities.

Maxen has found much to occupy himself with in his present duties. Although Roberts might be governor, it is Maxen’s minority leader counterpart in the state senate, Noelle Cherry, for whom he reserves his greatest contempt. He’s made numerous public and private remarks about her that were widely construed as misogynistic and caused headaches for his PR staff, who all know how futile it is to get their hot-tempered boss to issue apologies. It’s part of his “tough guy” image, in the same way as the CrossFit exercise and the football background: Maxen Flores never apologizes, because Maxen Flores always wins.

Indeed, while some people may point to Maxen’s demurred gubernatorial run as evidence of a loss, Maxen prefers to think of it as a postponed win. Talk has long abounded that he will seek higher office: perhaps the U.S. Senate when Joseph Kelly finally dies or retires, governor against his old opponent Bill (he’s already won an election against the man), or at least U.S. representative. Whatever his political future may hold, though, Maxen Flores is confident of one thing:

He’s going to keep winning.

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