Tensas Parish is a parish located in the northeastern section of the State of Louisiana; its eastern border is the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,252. It is the least populated parish in Louisiana. The parish seat is St. Joseph. The name Tensas is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. The parish was founded in 1843 following Indian Removal.
John Bennett Johnston Jr. is a retired American attorney, politician, and later lobbyist. A member of the Democratic Party, Johnston represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate from 1972 to 1997.
Louis Elwood Jenkins Jr., known as Woody Jenkins, is a newspaper editor in Baton Rouge and Central City, Louisiana, who served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972 to 2000 and waged three unsuccessful races for the United States Senate in 1978, 1980, and 1996.
Melvin Lee "Kip" Holden, is an American politician who served from 2005 to 2016 as the Democratic Mayor-President of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The parish includes the state capital of Baton Rouge and smaller suburban cities such as Baker, Central City, and Zachary.
John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is serving as commissioner of administration for Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. A Republican, Dardenne served as the 53rd lieutenant governor of his state from 2010 to 2016. Running as a Republican, he won a special election for lieutenant governor held in conjunction with the regular November 2, 2010 general election. At the time, Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state. Formerly, Dardenne was a member of the Louisiana State Senate for the Baton Rouge suburbs, a position he filled from 1992 until his election as secretary of state on September 30, 2006.
Suzanne Haik Terrell is the first and only Republican woman elected to statewide office in Louisiana. A practicing attorney, Terrell was the state's final commissioner of elections, a position which she held from 2000 to 2004. In 2002, she was the Republican nominee for United States Senate, losing a hotly contested and closely watched race against incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Terrell to a position as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. Terrell is currently a partner with the New Orleans law firm of Hangartner, Rydberg, and Terrell.
Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. is an American lawyer and former politician. He served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana from 2010 to 2013. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Democratic United States Representative from Louisiana's 6th congressional district.
Lydia Patrice Jackson is a Democratic former member of the Louisiana State Senate from Shreveport, Louisiana. An African American, Jackson represented District 39 in Caddo Parish in the far northwestern corner of her state from 2004 to 2012.
Samuel Bernard Nunez Jr.,, was a Louisiana politician and businessman from Chalmette, the seat of St. Bernard Parish in the New Orleans suburbs.
William Harold Nungesser is an American politician serving as the 54th lieutenant governor of Louisiana.
Fred Henry Mills, Jr., is an American pharmacist, banker, and politician from Parks, Louisiana currently serving as a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, having won a special election on January 22, 2011. Mills had previously represented District 46 in the Louisiana House of Representatives.
James Morgan Field, known as Jimmy Field, is a part-time attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a Republican former member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The five-member public regulatory agency oversees utilities, trucking, and telecommunications companies. Field was elected to the PSC in 1996 to succeed the Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, who became lieutenant governor and subsequently governor from 2004 to 2008.
Elbert Lee Guillory is a former member of the Louisiana State Senate. An American Republican, he represented District 24, including his native Opelousas, and several rural precincts, from May 2, 2009, when he won a special election, until January 11, 2016, when his full term to which he was elected in 2011 ended.
Larry Stephen Bankston, Sr., is an attorney from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who served from 1988 to 1996 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from the southeastern District 15.
Melvin Leo Rambin was a banker in Monroe, the seat of Ouachita Parish in northeastern Louisiana, who was thus far the only Republican in his city to have held the office of mayor since the 19th century era of Reconstruction. Rambin was elected in March 2000 but died in office of liver cancer after having served for only eleven-and-a-half months.
Abe Edward Pierce III was an American educator and politician in his native Monroe, Louisiana, who was the first African American to have served as mayor of his city. A Democrat, Pierce held the position for one term from 1996 to 2000, when he was unseated by the Republican candidate, Melvin Rambin.
Leonard Joseph Chabert, I, of Houma, Louisiana, was a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature. He was born in rural Chauvin in Terrebonne Parish in South Louisiana.
Sherman Albert Bernard Sr. was an American businessman from Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs, who served from 1972 to 1988 as the Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance. He is mainly remembered for having served forty-one months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in federal court to extortion in connection with his job duties.
Richard Joseph Ward III, known as Rick Ward III, is an attorney and politician from Port Allen, Louisiana, who was a Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate, representing district 17 until his resignation in June 2022.
Donald Elliott "Doc" Hines was an American family physician in Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, who was from 1993 to 2008 a member of the Louisiana State Senate for District 28. In his last term from 2004 to 2008, he was the Senate President under his political ally, Democratic former Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.
