Republican Tom Arceneaux defeated Democrat Greg Tarver in Saturday’s Shreveport mayoral run-off election. Arceneaux received 56-percent of the vote to Tarver’s 44-percent. LSU Shreveport political science professor Jeffrey Sadow says Arceneaux did a better job in getting his base to the polls.
“In the precincts where each candidate should have done favorably, Arceneaux did ten points better,” said Sadow.
Arceneaux is an attorney and former Shreveport councilman. Tarver will remain a state senator representing a portion of Caddo Parish.
Arceneaux’s win over Tarver, a Black Democrat, is considered an upset since 57-percent of the city’s residents are Black. But Sadow says Tarver has a lot of detractors.
“Tarver has been controversial, you’re either his friend or enemy in local politics and I think there might have been too many enemies,” said Sadow.
With Arceneaux’s election, Shreveport, Monroe and Alexandria are led by white mayors, despite a majority Black population in those cities. Sadow says current Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins is unpopular and similar situations occurred in Monroe and Alexandria, where Friday Ellis and Jacques Roy are the mayors.
“You can win these kind of elections, if you make sure that your opponent is someone who is controversial and is not popular and often the two go together,” said Sadow.
Arceneaux will be sworn in on December 31st.
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