New Orleanians elect 1st female sheriff, Susan Hutson
20th December 2021 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
By every metric, Susan Hutson should not have had a chance to win the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s office. She faced a 17-year incumbent, who had built a reputation as something of an institution in New Orleans city government. True, as Hutson noted, African-American female candidates had prevailed in the judicial elections, just one year ago, yet they mostly faced Caucasian incumbents – possessed of far lower public profiles than Marlin Gusman.
Nevertheless, the combination of a low turnout runoff election on December 11, matched with a surge of Black female voters, unprecedented enthusiasm amongst progressive activists, and $200,000 from billionaire Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg elected Susan Hutson the first Black female sheriff in Orleans Parish and Louisiana history.
Only two percent of sheriffs in the United States are female, and unlike other women who have ascended to the highest law-enforcement elective offices, Hutson did not run burnishing strong law enforcement experience, or her moderate “tough on crime” stances.
In contrast, she recounted her campaign to mandate body cameras for NOPD patrolmen and her outspoken efforts to confront police brutality throughout her 11-year tenure as the city’s Independent Police Monitor. In other words, Hudson was unapologetically progressive, questioning her opponent’s record of defending prisoner’s rights and loudly highlighting her deep skepticism of the new mental health jail facility which Marlin Gusman had championed. She literally ran for sheriff with plans to stop construction on a jail. And she won.
Susan Hutson‘s victory has changed the playbook for urban electoral politics. Even more than the election of her ally, progressive District Attorney Jason Williams one year prior, Hutson’s victory over the scion of one of the most powerful historic political organizations in New Orleans opens a new chapter in the history of the city – and potentially the nation.
Perhaps even more importantly, it shows the increasing dominance of women in urban elections, particularly Black women in low turnout runoff elections. In the November 13 primary, Gusman secured 48 percent of the vote in the sheriff’s race, just falling short of the 50.1 percent margin required to win reelection outright. Hutson received the second-largest share of the vote count, trailing significantly with 35 percent. (The three other challengers in the race – Quentin Brown, Christopher Williams and Janet Hays – split the remainder of the vote, preventing them from entering the runoff election.)
Anytime an incumbent is forced into a runoff, that officeholder is thought to be in danger of defeat. However, Gusman looked to be in a pretty strong position regardless. He had much of his original campaign war chest ($900,000) on hand, and Hutson’s meager primary fundraising seemed insufficient to compete. That is until Mark Zuckerberg arranged a $200,000 independent expenditure on her behalf.
Still, Gusman enjoyed every major endorsement in town. The old Morial forces in the L.I.F.E. political organization attempted to flex their remaining political influence, and the rising crime rate seemed to bolster the sheriff’s case that building the Phase III jail facility constituted an urban necessity.
Progressive activists in the city struck back, actually employing fiscally conservative arguments, arguing that the new “mental health” jail was expensive and unnecessary. It wasn’t an accident that Hutson doubled down on the fiscal responsibility angle. It proved a resonate strategy.
A year prior, a wave of female Black judges came into power in Orleans Parish on the strength of African-American female voters. Three competitive city council races and two millages were on the ballot this year. The question of history repeating itself was answered on December 13, 2021. Females amounted to 56 percent of the electorate, with African-American women constituting a plurality.
Arguably, the data suggests, in an historic first, that Black women in Orleans Parish proportionally voted at a higher rate than white men. The former tend to support African-American women over Black men, and Black men over candidates of other races. This helps explain the interesting councilmanic results. In District B, Lesli Harris coasted to victory over incumbent Jay Banks with 57 percent of the vote. In District E, Oliver Thomas did the same over incumbent Cyndi Nguyen, by almost the same margin.
There are exceptions to this rule, particularly when two Black men faced each other. In District D, Eugene Green triumphed over Troy Glover by a mere 58 votes out of 13,204 cast. The Clerk of Criminal District Court’s race was decided more by a factor of geography. Heavy turnout in Algiers favored Second City Court Clerk Darren Lombard over Austin Badon, who hailed from the East Bank-based First City Court seat.
By this logic, Stephanie Bridges should have also beaten Freddy King III for Council District C. However, her base of support in the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny, and assorted historic neighborhoods on the East Bank did not turnout to the polls to the same degree as those voters in Algiers. King managed to use his heavy support on the West Bank to offset gender politics, in other words. He had spent years garnering grassroots support, particularly in his tenure as Constituency Services Director for former Councilperson Nadine Ramsey. His labors on the behalf of a female councilperson swung quite a few women voters on the West Bank into his camp, ensuring a comfortable victory. Retail politics matter, even when there is a gender gap.
There are exceptions to every rule, but the split decision on the millages demonstrates the power of African-American women to influence citywide elections. The library millage was supported overwhelming, but exit polling revealed that female voters proved highly skeptical of the affordable housing millage. They heard of no concrete plan to spend the money, so a small majority turned against the proposal.
In other words, fiscal responsibility sells with the female-dominated New Orleans electorate. Susan Hutson was thought to win because she was on the cutting edge of progressive politics, but her victory may have had more to do with the fact that few voters wanted to spend money on the “white elephant” of a $51 million new jail when it was cheaper to build (or partner in the creation of) mental health facilities off of the OPP campus. At least that argument has served as Mayor LaToya Cantrell‘s justification in opposing Phase III. Marlin Gusman, who has favored the jail at every turn, trusted that the New Orleans electorate would back his $51 million proposal. Instead, the mostly female New Orleans electorate favored Cantrell’s reasoning – and Hutson’s.
Still, the latter did not downplay the historic nature of electing the first Black woman sheriff ever in Louisiana. “History has been made,” Hutson said in a statement on Facebook. “I am so proud and humbled to call myself your next Sheriff. A huge thank you to all of our campaign staff, our community organizers, the religious community, nonprofits, neighbors and friends.”
“Let’s get to work,” she added.
This article originally published in the December 20, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
