On April 20, 1991, McDonald won a special election to the state House, called when Republican John C. Ensminger was elected to the Louisiana State Senate. McDonald defeated another Republican, Sonny G. Panzico of West Monroe, 3,052 to 2,377. Later in the year, McDonald faced two Democratic opponents in the regular nonpartisan blanket primary but failed to gain a required majority. He therefore was placed in a general election, popularly called the runoff on November 16 with Democrat Jess Smith, whom he defeated, 9,997 to 7,799. Thereafter, McDonald was unopposed for reelection in 1995, 1999, and 2003. In 1997, McDonald joined in a bipartisan fashion with Republican Governor Murphy J. Foster, Jr., to procure passage of Act 1375, a plan which opened the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students scholarship program to all with a 2.5 grade point average and at least a score of 19 on the ACT. Family income was removed as a consideration for eligibility. Those with higher grades received $400 to $800 in extra funding to help meet the costs of other college expenses. McDonald's legislation was approved unanimously in both the House and Senate. TOPS is named for the late oilman Patrick F. Taylor of New Orleans, who in 1988 conceived the program. TOPS has benefited more than 616,000 students since it was launched in 1999 at an accumulative cost of almost $1.8 billion, funds which have put the state budget in shortfall. TOPS is expected to cost more than $354 million in fiscal year 2018–2019 alone. Term-limited in the House in the primary election held on October 20, 2007, McDonald instead ran for the state Senate from District 33, which includes Ouachita, Morehouse, Claiborne, Union, and West Carroll parishes. In that race to succeed the term-limited Republican Senator Robert J. Barham of Oak Ridge in Morehouse Parish, McDonald received 16,058 votes. He was defeated by the Republican candidate, the outgoing District 15State RepresentativeMike Walsworth, a real estate developer from West Monroe who finished with 17,292 votes and still holds the seat. McDonald's House seat was narrowly won in the general election held on November 17, 2007, by a Republican, Sam Little, a retired farmer from Bastrop. Little was unseated in a reconfigured district in 2011, and the position is now held by the Republican Jay Morris, a recent candidate in the special election for Louisiana's 5th congressional district seat.
