Founded in 1836 and incorporated in 1871, Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. The city is the parish seat of Caddo Parish. A portion of east Shreveport extends in to Bossier Parish because of the changing course of the Red River.
The city of Shreveport has a mayor-council government. The City's elected officials are: the mayor, and members of the city council.
Under the mayor-council government, the mayor serves as the executive officer of the city. As the city's chief administrator and official representative, the mayor is responsible for the general management of the city and for seeing that all laws and ordinances are enforced.
Current mayor: Tom Arceneaux (R)
District A: Tabatha Taylor (D)
District B: Gary Brooks (D)
District C: Jim Taliaferro (R)
District D: Grayson Boucher (R)
District E: Alan Jackson Jr. (R)
District F: James Green (D)
District G: Ursula Bowman (D)
Shreveport is something of an anomaly in Northwestern Louisiana, being the only city to vote reliably Democratic, along with its parish, Caddo Parish. Democrats have won the city since 1992. In statewide contests, the city and county lean more conservative with Republican's doing better in the city than their national counterparts despite still losing the city, the lone exceptions to this being the election of Kathleen Blanco in 2003 and John Bell Edwards in both his 2015 and 2019 bids. For the 2019 Attorney General's race, Republican's narrowly carried the city 50.9% to 49.1% despite John Bell Edwards sweeping the city 62.4% to 37%
Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
2020 | 28,901 | 36.82% | 48,119 | 61.31% | 1,466 | 1.87% |
2016 | 30,348 | 38.00% | 46,772 | 58.56% | 2,750 | 3.44% |
Year | Democratic | Republican | Other |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | 57.2%43,612 | 39.6 30,199 | 3.2% 2,426 |
Year | Democratic | Republican | Other |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | 56.1%42,490 | 41.7 31,553 | 2.2% 1,661 |
Year | Democratic | Republican | Other |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | 62.4%28,106 | 37 16,668 | 0.6% 290 |
Year | Democratic | Republican | Other |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | 49.1 21,099 | 50.921,832 | 0.0% 0 |
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish in the northwestern region of the state of Louisiana in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan statistical area. In 2020, it had a total population of 62,701, up from 61,315 in 2010.
Shreveport is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. It extends along the west bank of the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. The 2020 census tabulation for the city's population was 187,593, while the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area had a population of 393,406.
Caddo Parish is a parish located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the parish had a population of 237,848. The parish seat and largest city is Shreveport, which developed along the Red River.
C. E. Byrd, a Blue Ribbon School, is a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. In continuous operation since its establishment in 1925, C. E. Byrd is also the eighth-largest high school in the United States of America as of February 2019. Byrd students come from its neighborhood or throughout the entire school district through its selective math/science magnet program.
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.
Cedric Bradford Glover is a Democratic Party politician who is a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, representing District 4. He was earlier the two-term mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, the first African-American to hold that position.
Hazel Beard was an American politician who was the first woman and the first Republican to have served as mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, since the era of Reconstruction. Prior to her mayoral service, Beard was a small business owner and a member of the Shreveport City Council from the southwest portion of the city. She was the first woman to have been chairperson of the city council.
Roy McArthur Hopkins, known as Hoppy Hopkins, was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 1 in northern Caddo Parish and two precincts in northern Bossier Parish from 1988 until his Thanksgiving Day death from bone cancer. In 1966, Hopkins moved his family to Oil City and made his living there as an automobile dealer.
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.
Wellborn Jack, Sr., was an attorney from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Caddo Parish serving from 1940 to 1964. He finished in sixth place for five at-large seats in the general election held on March 3, 1964.
George Wendell D'Artois, Sr. was an American law enforcement officer and politician in Shreveport, Louisiana, who served as the city's Public Safety Commissioner from 1962 to 1976. D'Artois was investigated more than once for misuse of city funds, and was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 1976 shooting death of Jim Leslie, a Shreveport advertising executive who had managed D'Artois' 1974 re-election campaign. He was released for lack of evidence. A trial on charges of theft of city funds and intimidation of witnesses was postponed several times because of D'Artois's poor health. Arrested again in April 1977 for Leslie's murder, D'Artois died the following month during heart surgery and never went to trial. Histories published in the decades since D'Artois' death state that he was involved with organized crime and had contracted for the murders of both Leslie and Leslie's killer to prevent their testimony before a grand jury.
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 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the six U.S. representatives from the state of Louisiana, one from each of the state's six congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, United States.
The 2019 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held to elect the governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican businessman Eddie Rispone. Edwards became the first Democratic Governor of Louisiana to win re-election to a second consecutive term in 44 years since Edwin Edwards in 1975. It was the closest Louisiana gubernatorial election since 1979.
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.
The 2022 Shreveport mayoral election took place on November 8, 2022, with a runoff election on December 10 because no candidate obtained a majority of the vote in the first round. It selected the next mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. Incumbent Democratic mayor Adrian Perkins sought re-election to a second term in office, but finished fourth in the general election. Former Shreveport City Councillor Tom Arceneaux, a Republican, and Louisiana state senator Gregory Tarver, a Democrat, advanced to the runoff election. Besides Perkins, other candidates eliminated in the general election include Caddo Parish Commission president Mario Chavez and city councillor LeVette Fuller.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Louisiana on October 14, 2023, with second rounds held on November 18 where needed. Louisiana uses a two round system, where all candidates from all parties share the same ballot in the first round, and if no candidate wins an absolute majority, a runoff between the top two is held.
Caddo Parish held its regularly-scheduled election for sheriff in 2023 as part of the 2023 Louisiana elections. Incumbent Republican Steve Prator retired, leaving an open seat. In the first round, held on October 14, Republican John Nickelson and Democrat Henry L. Whitehorn, Sr. were the highest-placing candidates, advancing to a November 18 runoff. In the runoff, Whitehorn beat Nickelson by exactly one vote; however, Nickelson filed a lawsuit seeking a rerun of the election due to various alleged irregularities.