Tony Perkins is President of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council. He is a former member of the Louisiana legislature where he served for eight years, and he is recognized as a legislative pioneer for authoring measures like the nation's first Covenant Marriage law. Although he had no opposition for re-election, he kept his pledge to serve only two terms and left office at the completion of his term in 2004. He was a Republican candidate for the United States Senate in 2002. Since joining FRC in the fall of 2003 he has launched new initiatives to affirm and defend the Judeo-Christian values that this nation is founded upon.