Stephen Handwerk is stepping down from his leadership position with the Louisiana Democratic Party. Handwerk is the longest-serving executive director for the party.
“It’s time, the average lifespan of a Democratic Party executive director is regretfully only 18 months, so 8.5 years I think I have done my time,” said Handwerk.
Handwerk says during those eight and a half years, Democrat John Bel Edwards was elected as governor and then re-elected. He says over 4,000 Democrats were trained to run for office and in this past Presidential Primary, Democrats outperformed Republicans by over 62,000 votes.
While Edwards is the only statewide Democratic elected official, Handwerk says the Democratic Party made strides in winning important local elections.
“We were able to elect the first African-American woman as mayor in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport and look I would like to think we played a little bit of a role,” said Handwerk.
Handwerk will leave his position next month. The Louisiana Democratic Party also needs to elect a new chairperson as state senator Karen Carter Peterson is stepping down from that role. An election will take place next month.
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