Ascension Parish business owner featured in USA Today opinion section – Weekly Citizen

Staff Report| Gonzales Weekly Citizen

Brandon Trosclair, an Ascension Parish business owner who operates 15 grocery stores in Louisiana and Mississippi, has made national headlines after mounting a legal challenge to the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for larger businesses.

The USA Today, which shares the parent company Gannett with this publication, published a Nov. 10 opinion article contributed by Trosclair.

A previous Republican candidate for the Louisiana House of Representatives, Trosclair owns and operates the two Ralph's Market stores along Hwy. 44 just north and south of Gonzales, as well as the two Butcher Boy stores in Plaquemine and Donaldsonville.

A second-generation grocer, Trosclair acquired several stores in the New Orleans area over the summer.

President Joe Biden announced that the federal government will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for companies with 100 or more employees, a move thatprompted a challenge from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

A federal appeals court temporarily halted the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more employees on Nov. 6.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to bevaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly testing.

In the USA Today opinion piece, Trosclair stated he is "grateful to be living the American dream" as a business owner.

He went on to praise the hundreds of employees who showed up to their jobs to serve customers "every day in the face of a scary, unknown virus."

"I am humbled to employ hundreds of these heroes. It is no small thingfor me to be able tohelp their families live out their own versions of the American dream. But now I am faced with an incomprehensible choiceimposed upon me by the federal government: Force these workers, whose dedication and skills have fueled my businesssuccess, to take a COVID-19 vaccine, submit to weekly testing at either my or their expense or show them the door," Trosclair stated.

Later in the opinion article, he pointed out that the American dream is not just about a good job to provide families with a good life, but also about individual freedoms.

"As a business leader in my community and the head of our company, I must fight against this administrations misguided attempts to take those dreams away," he concluded.

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Ascension Parish business owner featured in USA Today opinion section - Weekly Citizen