Major General Huntington Blair Downer, Jr., known as Hunt Downer (born April 28, 1946), is a Republican politician in the U.S. state of Louisiana who is the former assistant adjutant general of the state National Guard and the first ever director of the new Louisiana Veterans Affairs Department.
A former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Houma, the seat of Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana, Downer ran for Governor of Louisiana in 2003 and finished in sixth place in the nonpartisan blanket primary.
Downer graduated from Terrebonne High School in Houma in 1964 and first attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Nicholls State University (then College) in Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish. He was named to Who's Who Among Colleges and Universities in 1967. He received his law degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in 1972. He did graduate work at LSU and studied at the U.S. Army War College in 1999.
