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Governor Landry faces backlash over stock photo used to push tax proposal
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BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry faced major backlash Friday after he allegedly appropriated a couple's photo in order to push his own agenda.
The photo was posted to social media Thursday evening with the caption, "Meet Huey and Rose, a young couple working part-time and making the most of the Louisiana Forward plan! Thanks to this plan, they won’t have to pay any state income taxes!"
The ad was to promote measures that would establish a flat income tax rate and impose a sales tax on more goods and services. He used the image to help illustrate how much a low-income family would save.
Users immediately began to comment about how the image appeared to be a stock photo.
Friday morning, a private Instagram account by the name of "daltonthacker20" commented on the post to say he didn't know he and his wife's photo was a stock picture. The comment was later deleted.
It turns out "Huey and Rose" are actually Dalton and Nichole Thacker, who live in Washington State. The names "Huey and Rose" were likely reminiscent of former Governor Huey Long and his wife, Rose Long.
In an email to WBRZ, Thacker, an attorney in Seattle, explained that his mother actually sold some images of him and his wife to iStock a few years ago. He said the sale of his photos was consensual.
WBRZ reached out to Governor Landry's office for a comment but did not receive a response.
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