| Elections in Louisiana |
|---|
 |
 Government |
The office of Mayor-President of Baton Rouge, Louisiana was formally created in 1846 as the chief executive of the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, [1] which has been the state capital of Louisiana continuously since 1849 (except for a brief time during and after the Civil War when Opelousas, Shreveport, or New Orleans held that title).
Baton Rouge was granted the right to incorporate in 1817 under legislation approved by Louisiana's second governor, Jacques Villeré. The city was chartered the following year and led by a magistrate who was chosen among the popularly-elected, five-member board of selectmen. [2] Selectmen were up for election annually. [3]
Early mayors also served one-year terms. [4] The office had a two-year term in the 1880s [5] and was increased to four years in duration in 1898. [6]
The first mayoral election in 1846 was between James Cooper (who had previously served as a magistrate [6] ) and John Dufrocq, [1] a Whig Party member [7] who won the balloting. [6] In 1856 another noteworthy race occurred, this time between Know Nothing mayor Joseph Monget and his Democratic challenger, Edward Cousinard; [8] after actually tying in the popular vote, the commissioners of election decided to award the election to the incumbent. [9] Cousinard later won the mayor's seat himself in the 1857 election. [6]
The city's government essentially ceased to exist for the duration of the Civil War, once the Battle of Baton Rouge had begun in 1862. [10] : 250 It was also largely stripped of influence at one point by the First Reconstruction Act, which was issued in 1867. [11]
Multiple mayoral elections during the Reconstruction Era were disputed. After the 1871 election Gov. Henry Clay Warmoth did what he legally could from the temporary capitol in New Orleans to briefly prop up the new African American Republican mayor, [12] who was facing an overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled board of selectmen [10] : 254 —but in 1872 Warmoth himself was facing a mounting impeachment effort and forced to broaden what remained of his support by reaching out to Democrats who had a much more solid base in Louisiana than the Republicans did; he declared the disputed 1872 election results null and void, and awarded the state's commission to the Democratic candidate. [13] Ultimately, the 1872–73 term essentially ended up with two separately-functioning city governments, one recognized primarily by African American and pro-Union white Republicans (including so-called "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags") and one recognized primarily by native white Democrats. [10] : 253–54 Although the term "city council" had been used on occasion before, [14] the board of selectmen really seems to have begun transitioning over to the use of the term under the Republican mayor that year, [15] perhaps in anticipation of needing to differentiate it from the competing board of selectmen that the Democrats were in the process of setting up (the board finally formally adopted the title "city council" in 1874 [16] ). The Republicans had shown improvements in their organizational efforts (and electoral strength in general) by being able to win the 1872 election without Warmoth's help—and then by holding a share of the government for the duration of the term. While the Democratic mayor, James Elam, had been willing to fight to hang on to his seat after the disputed votes of 1871 and 1872, he either determined that he had no chance at the ballot box in the 1873 annual municipal elections or he simply no longer felt up to the challenge any more (he did, in fact, die only several months after the scheduled election date [17] ). Shortly before the election was to be held, African American state senator J. Henri Burch, a prominent area Republican, met with Elam, and they negotiated a compromise where Elam would resign his position and support new governor William Pitt Kellogg's appointment of the Republican incumbent to the mayor's seat—along with three Republicans and three Democrats to the city council (as selected by a conference committee). [18] This compromise was largely acceptable to both sides (very rare for Reconstruction), although a rogue faction of the Democrats did attempt to hold their own election for the council (which failed to draw many to the polls and apparently quickly faded away). [19]
After making it through 1873 relatively peacefully, Kellogg also appointed the mayor in 1874. [10] : 255 The Republicans did win a municipal election in their own right in 1875, but in 1876 the Democrats were able to use various forms of intimidation, including by former members of the old Knights of the White Camelia, to regain the mayor's seat [20] : 224 for the first of 28 consecutive Democratic chief executives.
In 1914 the city began using a city commission government under then-mayor Alex Grouchy, Jr. [2] (it had already been in the works before the sudden death of Mayor Jules Roux the year before). [21] In 1949 the governments of the city and the Parish of East Baton Rouge were largely consolidated under then-mayor S. Powers Higginbotham, [22] and in 1982 they were fully merged into a single governing body (similar to a consolidated city-county, although the municipalities of Baker, Central, and Zachary remain self-governing). At that time, the title of "mayor" changed to "mayor-president," [23] being that they were now both mayor of Baton Rouge and president of East Baton Rouge Parish. Indeed, three recent mayor-presidents resided in Baker or Zachary at the time of their elections, giving them the distinction of serving as mayor of Baton Rouge without actually living there. No candidate from the City of Central has been elected mayor-president yet, although Mack A. "Bodi" White, Jr. came very close to doing so in 2016 by receiving 48.2% of the vote. [24]
No families have dominated the office over the years, although Baton Rouge's longest-serving mayor—Wade Bynum (24 years over two different periods of time) [9] —did replace his brother Turner Bynum after he died in office, [25] and Mary Webb was later appointed by the city council to complete the term of her late husband, Jesse Webb, Jr. [26] Although most of Baton Rouge's mayors have been white male Democrats, the last four mayor-presidents have included multiple Republicans and African Americans, as well as a woman. The current mayor-president is Sid Edwards. [27]
Below is a list of Baton Rouge's chief executives—magistrates from 1818 to 1846, [28] [2] mayors from 1846 to 1949, and mayor-presidents from 1949 to present. The town magistrate was an appointive office, determined from within the elected five-member board of selectmen. [2] All city mayors and city-parish mayor-presidents were otherwise popularly elected, unless specified below.
| No. | Image | Mayor | Term start | Term end | Party | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Williams | 1818 | 1820 | first magistrate | ||
| 2 | Francois "Palo" Gardere | 1820 | 1821 | |||
| 3 | William Williams | 1821 | 1822 | |||
| 4 | William Wykoff | 1822 | 1823 | |||
| 5 | Jason Candee | 1823 | 1824 | |||
| 6 | Bartholomew Beauregard | 1824 | 1828 | |||
| 7 | William Grivet | 1828 | 1829 | |||
| 8 | William R. Willis | 1829 | 1832 | |||
| 9 | John Reid | 1832 | 1833 | |||
| 10 | William R. Willis | 1833 | 1834 | |||
| 11 | P. A. Walker | 1834 | 1835 | |||
| 12 | Raphael Legendre | 1835 | 1836 | |||
| 13 | Stephen Henderson | 1836 | 1836 [16] | resigned [16] | ||
| 14 | Raphael Legendre | 1836 | 1838 | |||
| 15 | William Gil | 1838 | 1839 | |||
| 16 | James Cooper | 1839 | 1843 | |||
| 17 | Abel Waddill | 1843 | 1844 | |||
| 18 | James Cooper | 1844 | 1845 | |||
| 19 | John Reid | 1845 | 1846 | final magistrate | ||
| 20 | John R. Dufrocq | 1846 | 1855 | Whig [7] | first mayor; [6] 1854: re-elected unopposed [29] | |
| 21 | Joseph Monget | 1855 | 1857 | Know Nothing [8] | 1856: appointed, by commissioners of election, due to election resulting in a tie vote of 223–223 [9] | |
| 22 | Edward Cousinard | 1857 | 1859 | Democratic [8] | ||
| 23 | James Essex Elam | 1859 | 1862 | Democratic | ||
| 24 | Benjamin Bryan | 1862 | 1862 | Democratic | resigned, due to Battle of Baton Rouge [9] | |
| 25 | Jordan Holt | 1862 | 1865 | Democratic [30] | 1862: appointed, by board of selectmen; [9] 1863–1865: city administered by Union occupation troops, rather than by municipal government; [10] : 250 1865: reappointed, by Gov. J. Madison Wells; resigned, to serve in Louisiana House of Representatives [9] | |
| 26 | James Essex Elam | 1865 | 1869 | Democratic [10] : 251–52 | 1865: appointed, by Wells; [10] : 251 1867: election canceled, due to order by Gen. Philip Sheridan [10] : 252 in accordance with the implementation of the First Reconstruction Act [11] | |
| 27 | Oliver P. Skolfield | 1869 | 1870 | Democratic [31] | ||
| 28 | James Essex Elam | 1870 | 1871 | Democratic [10] : 253 | ||
| 29 | Loyeau Berhel | 1871 | 1871 | Republican [10] : 253 | certified elected, by Democratic-controlled commissioners of election; commissioned to assume office, by Gov. Henry Clay Warmoth [12] but was eventually removed after charges of voting irregularities upheld by Democratic-controlled electoral investigative committee; [10] : 254 first African American mayor; first Republican mayor [10] : 253 His surname is sometimes rendered as "Brahill". [32] | |
| 30 | James Essex Elam | 1871 | 1872 | Democratic | 1871: retroactively declared elected by Democratic-controlled electoral investigative committee [10] : 254 | |
| 31 * | Henry Schorten | 1872 | 1876 | Republican [33] | 1872: certified elected, by commissioners of election [15] and remained in office after charges of voting irregularities dismissed by Democratic-controlled electoral investigating committee; [10] : 254 1873: appointed, by Gov. William Pitt Kellogg; 1874: reappointed, by Kellogg; [10] : 255 first white Republican mayor; first Republican mayor to serve full term | |
| 32 * | Jordan Holt | 1872 | 1872 | Democratic | acting mayor; [15] after his and Democratic-controlled Board of Selectmen's endorsement of petition signed by prominent local citizens, election results were voided, by Warmoth [34] | |
| 33 * | James Essex Elam | 1872 | 1873 | Democratic [33] | commissioned to assume office, by Warmoth; [13] resigned, due to the creation of the bipartisan "compromise list of candidates for the city government" for Kellogg to appoint [18] | |
| 34 |  | Leon Jastremski | 1876 | 1882 | Democratic [10] : 256 | |
| 35 | Joseph Charrotte† | 1882 | 1883 | Democratic | died in office [6] | |
| 36 | John Wax | 1883 | 1883 | Democratic | acting mayor [28] | |
| 37 | William S. Booth | 1883 | 1884 | Democratic | ||
| 38 | Gustavus L. Vay | 1884 | 1888 | Democratic | ||
| 39 | Benjamin Franklin Bryan | 1888 | 1890 | Democratic | ||
| 40 | Gustavus L. Vay | 1890 | 1894 | Democratic | ||
| 41 | Benjamin Franklin Bryan | 1894 | 1896 | Democratic [35] | ||
| 42 | John Wax | 1896 | 1898 | Democratic | ||
| 43 | Robert A. Hart | 1898 | 1902 | Democratic | ||
| 44 | Robert L. Pruyn | 1902 | 1902 | Democratic | resigned, due to commitments of his building contractor business [36] | |
| 45 | Ben Mayer | 1902 | 1903 | Democratic | acting mayor; [37] [28] first known Jewish mayor [38] | |
| 46 | Wade Bynum | 1903 | 1910 | Democratic | longest-serving mayor (also served 1923–41) | |
| 47 | Jules Roux† | 1910 | 1913 | Democratic | died in office [6] | |
| 48 | Isidore Larguier | 1913 | 1913 | Democratic | acting mayor [39] [28] | |
| 49 | Alex Grouchy | 1913 | 1922 | Democratic | 1913: appointed, by city council [40] | |
| 50 | Turner Bynum† | 1922 | 1922 | Democratic | died in office [6] | |
| 51 | Louis Ricaud | 1922 | 1923 | Democratic | acting mayor [2] [28] | |
| 52 | Wade Bynum | 1923 | 1941 | Democratic | longest-serving mayor (also served 1903–10) | |
| 53 | Fred S. LeBlanc | 1941 | 1944 | Democratic | resigned, to serve as Louisiana Attorney General [41] | |
| 54 | Sargent Higginbotham | 1944 | 1953 | Democratic | 1944: appointed, by Gov. Jimmie Davis; [41] final mayor; 1949: first mayor-president [22] | |
| 55 | [[Jesse L. Webb, Jr.† | 1953 | 1956 | Democratic | died in office [26] | |
| 56 | Frank J. McConnell | 1956 | 1956 | Democratic | acting mayor [42] [28] | |
| 57 | Mary Estus Jones Webb | 1956 | 1957 | Democratic | appointed, by city council; first female mayor [26] | |
| 58 | Jack Christian | 1957 | 1965 | Democratic | ||
| 59 | Woodrow Dumas | 1965 | 1981 | Democratic | resident of Baker at time of election | |
| 60 | Pat Screen | 1981 | 1989 | Democratic | ||
| 61 | Thomas Edward McHugh | 1989 | 2001 | Democratic | resident of Zachary at time of election; changed party affiliation to Republican in 1995; [43] first Republican mayor since Reconstruction Era | |
| Republican | ||||||
| 62 | Bobby Ray Simpson | 2001 | 2005 | Republican | mayor of Baker at time of election | |
| 63 |  | Kip Holden | 2005 | 2017 | Democratic | first African American mayor to serve full term; first Democratic African American mayor (Republican Loyeau Berhel served one year in 1871) |
| 64 |  | Sharon Weston Broome | 2017 | 2025 | Democratic | first elected female mayor; first female African American mayor; first female mayor to serve full term |
| 65 | Sid Edwards | 2025 | Incumbent | Republican |
Note: an asterisk denotes that the 1872–73 mayoral term featured two competing claims to the title, one from a Republican-controlled city government led by Henry Schorten and one from a Democratic-controlled city government led by Jordan Holt and, later, James Essex Mason Elam; for what it is worth, Schorten physically occupied the actual mayor's chair in the city hall, [44] effectively making the Holt and Elam administrations a rump government.
David Conner Treen Sr. was an American politician and attorney from Louisiana. A member of the Republican Party, Treen served as U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1973 to 1980 and the 51st governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984. Treen was the first Republican elected to either office since Reconstruction.
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 served as commissioner of administration for Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. A Republican, Dardenne previously served as the 53rd lieutenant governor of his state from 2010 to 2016. Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state. He was previously 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.
The Advocate is Louisiana's largest daily newspaper. Based in Baton Rouge, it serves the southern portion of the state. Separate editions for New Orleans, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, and for Acadiana, The Acadiana Advocate, are published. It also publishes gambit, about New Orleans food, culture, events, and news, and weekly entertainment magazines: Red in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, and Beaucoup in New Orleans.
Bourbon Democrat was a term used in the United States in the later 19th century and early 20th century (1872–1904) to refer to members of the Democratic Party who were ideologically aligned with fiscal conservatism or classical liberalism, especially those who supported presidential candidates Charles O'Conor in 1872, Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, President Grover Cleveland in 1884, 1888, and 1892 and Alton B. Parker in 1904.
The 2003 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 15, 2003, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Republican governor Mike Foster was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of term limits established by the Louisiana Constitution.
The 1960 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on April 19, 1960.
The politics of Louisiana involve political parties, laws and the state constitution, and the many other groups that influence the governance of the state. The state was a one-party Deep South state dominated by the Democratic Party from the end of Reconstruction to the 1960s, forming the backbone of the "Solid South." This was due to the near-total disenfranchisement of the state's large African-American population during this time, who mostly voted Republican. The Civil Rights era turned the state into a competitive one on the federal level, as it voted for the nationwide winner in every election between 1972 and 2004. It remained Democratic on the state and local level until the turn of the 21st century, allowing Republicans to win control of the state legislature and every statewide office in 2011. Republicans won a United States Senate seat for Louisiana in the election of 2004, for the first time since 1876. Republicans captured both seats in the election of 2014 for the first time since 1872. In the election of 2008, the state voted for a losing presidential candidate for the first time since 1968. Democrats won less than 40% of the presidential popular vote in the state in the elections of 2016 and 2020.
Anthony Claude Leach Jr., known as Buddy Leach, was an American businessman, lawyer, military veteran, and Democratic politician from Louisiana. From 1979 to 1981, he served one term as a U.S. representative for Louisiana's 4th congressional district. He also served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and as chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party.
Karen Carter Peterson is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a member of the Louisiana State House from 1999 to 2010, then as the state senator from the 5th district until her resignation in 2022. She also served as the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party from 2012 to 2020, becoming the first female chair of the state party. In 2008, Peterson became as Democratic National Committeewoman for Louisiana. In 2017, Peterson was elected vice chair of civic engagement and voter participation for the Democratic National Committee.
Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock, an American conservative Democrat from Franklin in St. Mary Parish, was the only three-term lieutenant governor in 20th century Louisiana history. He served from 1960 to 1972. Aycock failed in his only bid for governor in the 1971 Democratic primary. Few lieutenant governors in Louisiana have been elected directly to the governorship; former Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Lafayette, is a prominent exception.
John Georges is an American businessman from New Orleans, who owns Louisiana's two largest newspapers and online news sites. He formerly served on the Louisiana Board of Regents, the body which supervises higher education in his native state. In 2007, he ran for governor as an independent. He received 186,000 votes and procured a plurality in Orleans Parish. In 2010, he sought the office of mayor of New Orleans as a Democrat; he finished a distant third behind two other Democrats.
William Harold Nungesser is an American politician serving as the 54th lieutenant governor of Louisiana since 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Nungesser is also the former president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission, having been re-elected to a second four-year term in the 2010 general election in which he topped two opponents with more than 71 percent of the vote. His second term as parish president began on January 1, 2011, and ended four years later.
The 2015 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 21, 2015, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Republican governor Bobby Jindal was not eligible to run for re-election to a third term because of term limits established by the Louisiana Constitution.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Louisiana took place on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Louisiana, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The 2015 Louisiana lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on October 24, 2015, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana, with a runoff election held on November 21, 2015. Incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne did not run for re-election to a second full term in office. He instead ran for governor. Billy Nungesser won the election defeating Kip Holden, despite a Democratic victory in the gubernatorial election, in which John Bel Edwards defeated David Vitter by a similar margin.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Louisiana on October 24, 2015. All of Louisiana's executive officers, in addition to both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature were up for election. Under Louisiana's jungle primary system, all candidates appeared on the same ballot, regardless of party and voters voted for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote during the primary election, a runoff election was held on November 21, 2015, between the top two candidates in the primary. Louisiana is the only state that has a jungle primary system.
The 2021 Louisiana's 2nd congressional district special election was held on March 20, 2021, with a runoff being held on April 24, 2021.
The 2023 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on October 14, 2023, to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Governor John Bel Edwards was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third consecutive term in office. This race was one of two Democratic-held governorships up for election in 2023 in a state that voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
We learn by dispatch from Hon. John S. Chapman that at the election in Baton Rouge for mayor, yesterday, the Republican candidate, Mr. L. Brahill, was elected by fifteen majority.