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The personal section contains some detail that in my opinion aren't noteworthy, and some of them are the kind of information one might prefer to not share on the internet. I have removed the Congressperson's wife's maiden name, birth year and home town. I also propose removing her employment, unless someone has a reason why it's noteworthy. I also propose to remove the list of former places of residence. Cheese and Games (talk) 04:57, 24 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed with the points above; I've removed the employment and former places of residence, and added sourced info about Letlow's recent COVID-19 treatment. See Special:Diff/996663253. DanCherek (talk) 23:43, 27 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The article presently says that the town of Start is west of Monroe, but maps show it due east of Monroe. I'll let someone else, more familiar with wiki procedures, make sure this gets corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.8.28.143 (talk) 06:58, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

COVID. [1]

Probably could be put a bit more gracefully than that, but yes, he died of COVID. An edit to articles referring to the election will likely be necessary, to mention the impact his death has on the filling of the seat. Also, please make sure to sign your talk page posts. Builder018 (talk) 02:48, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As QoopyQoopy has pointed out in This edit summary, it's not immediately obvious whether or not someone remains (candidate)-elect, in this case representative-elect, if they die during the period between their election win and their inauguration. I figure we should establish a consensus here before moving forward. Builder018 (talk) 02:59, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Someone changed the phrasing so it merely says that he was elected - I think that's a good way to do it. QoopyQoopy (talk) 03:02, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the current state of the article seems sufficient, though I'll leave this thread open for any alternative proposals. Builder018 (talk) 03:29, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's precedent here (see Jack Swigert) to include member-elect. Kingofthedead (talk) 04:01, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As User:Kingofthedead pointed out Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert was elected to Congress in 1982, but died before being sworn in. He is still considered to be a Representative-elect on Wikipedia. I believe that Letlow should be marked as a Representative-elect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:192:8880:3410:18DD:67DF:B539:6792 (talk) 10:37, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know if there will be a successor for the next congress via yet another election, or will it remain vacant until the 118th Congress? Negrong502 (talk) 04:24, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Negrong502:: The governor of Louisiana has that power to make that decision. Given public pressure, Louisiana citizens is almost certainly going to call for a special election soon. The House of Representatives is too close to leave that seat vacant. But that's just flatulent speculation. OfficerCow (talk) 04:36, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

According to CNN, there will be a special election. These matters can greatly complicate things. When the mayor of Juneau, Alaska died a few weeks after taking office it resulted in the town having four mayors within one year. First came the predecessor, who was voted out. Then Greg Fisk took office, but he died weeks into his administration. The temporary successor decided not to run for the office. In the subsequent special election, a fourth mayor took office - all within one years time. Juneau Mike (talk) 10:23, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Here's the position on covid-19 that he ran on before he got infected. According to the Washington Post, he followed the medical advice inconsistently, wearing masks some times but not other times, and also urging the state to ease pandemic restrictions.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/12/29/luke-letlow-covid-louisiana-congress/

Luke Letlow, GOP congressman-elect from Louisiana, dies of covid-19
Washington Post
Tim Elfrink
Dec. 30, 2020

As the coronavirus ravaged Louisiana, Letlow urged residents to follow social distancing guidelines and to listen to doctors, noting that Abraham, a physician, had returned to Louisiana to help treat covid-19 patients.

But photos on his Twitter page show he had an inconsistent record of wearing masks while campaigning, sometimes covering his face at meet-and-greets but also speaking indoors without a mask on to rooms of mask-free residents. At a candidate forum in October, Letlow urged the state to ease pandemic restrictions, saying, “We’re now at a place if we do not open our economy, we’re in real danger.”

--Nbauman (talk) 16:20, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This information seems relevant and worthy of inclusion in this article. 173.88.246.138 (talk) 18:04, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@KidAd: I am not saying the election disappears, but he will never take office, so why should he be referred to as an officeholder? What office are we saying he held? Removing this template just constitutes an acknowledgment of reality, it doesn't invalidate the election. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 18:29, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Winning an election confers officeholder status to an individual. Scrubbing the infobox of any useful information will only serve to confuse casual readers who are reading his page because of his death. KidAd talk 18:31, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

KidAd, what's the policy basis for this claim that "winning an election confers officeholder status to an individual"? There are plenty of people in undemocratic countries who win elections who are never allowed to take office, and we don't call them officeholders, since they don't hold office. I don't see this in the template documentation. The template isn't a prize we give out for winning an election. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 18:35, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

When he won his election, he became "Congressman-elect." As far as I know, members-elect of legislative bodies in this country cannot be de-knighted, even in death. KidAd talk 18:37, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

KidAd, but "Congressman-elect" is not a political office. It's a designation of someone who will assume office in the future. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 18:38, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

 Comment: If there is further disagreement about this, it may be prudent to move it to Template talk:Infobox officeholder so the documentation can then be updated accordingly. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 21:31, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Spaastm: I'm not seeing anything about a heart attack in the reference you cited. It attributes Letlow's death to COVID-19. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 21:42, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Tartan357: I didn't add the reference. The reference was already there in the "Personal life and death" section of the article. I merely added the reference to the infobox. --Spaastm (talk) 21:45, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

[2] says "LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection.". Most of the sources I've seen say "complications of COVID-19" or simply "died with COVID-19" (not giving any explicit cause of death). power~enwiki (π, ν) 21:46, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Power~enwiki, then we should say "complications of COVID-19", since that's what the RS are saying. It's important to realize that there will always be an organ system that fails first whenever anyone dies from anything. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 21:49, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Power~enwiki Thanks for the link! I've edited the reference accordingly. Tartan357, "complications of COVID-19" is too vague when we know exactly what the problem was: A heart attack while being treated due to having SARS-CoV-2 in his body. --Spaastm (talk) 21:52, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Spaastm, it's not too vague, that's a very common medical phrasing for a cause of death. The RS call it a complication of COVID-19, so we should too. I must say that given past warnings about poorly-sourced COVID-19 pandemic edits on your talk page, and your immediate removal of the COVID-19 GS alert I left you, I suspect that you might be engaging in some POV-pushing here. Please, explain why we cannot call this a complication of COVID-19, which power~enwiki has pointed out is what the RS call it. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 21:58, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Tartan357, I've lost interest in this discussion. I've undone all the edits I made to this article. You can go ahead and decide for yourselves what you want to put down as this man's cause of death. --Spaastm (talk) 22:10, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As there has been some disagreement as to whether this article's infobox should be Infobox person or Infobox officeholder, I have opened a RFC to resolve the issue. Which infobox template should it be? Lettler^{hello • contribs} 21:56, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Survey

• Person: "Congressman-elect" is a designation used by one who is scheduled to assume office in the future, and is not an office in and of itself. I'd also like to note that pointing to Jack Swigert is nothing more than an WP:OTHERCONTENT argument. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 22:01, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
• Officeholder The scrubbing of pertinent infobox information will only confuse readers. An election is not voided when a yet-to-be-seated politician dies. KidAd talk 22:04, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

  KidAd, please tone down your rhetoric. We can have a civil debate about this. Making wild accusations that using the person template constitutes voiding an election and "scrubbing" information is unnecessary. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 22:07, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

My rhetoric has been nothing but civil thus far. The characterization of removing useful content from an infobox as "scrubbing" is about as tame as you can get. I'm confident that this civil discussion can continue without any further condescension. KidAd talk 22:13, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

 Comment: This probably belongs at Template talk:Infobox officeholder. As it currently functions, using that template requires the label In office to be placed above any statement that could be made about him dying before he could take office, which is a bit awkward. This is an issue with wider implications that, if addressed in the proper forum, could result in the template and/or its documentation being changed. ― Tartan357 ^Talk 22:06, 30 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]