La. sets special election for state Senate seats

By Julie O’Donoghue
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — Louisiana will hold a special election Feb. 15 for open state Senate seats in Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

A runoff, if needed, will be held March 29, on the same ballot as Gov. Jeff Landry’s proposed tax and criminal justice state constitutional amendments.

Sens. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and Jean-Paul Coussan, R-Lafayette, are leaving the Louisiana Legislature to take their new positions in Congress and on the Public Service Commission, respectively. Their resignations will leave Senate districts 14 and 23 open.

The candidate qualifying period for both Senate seats will take place Jan. 7-9.

State Rep. Larry Selders, R-Baton Rouge, and former state school board member Carolyn Hill, D-Baton Rouge, have both said they will run to replace Fields. State Rep. Brach Myers, R-Lafayette, and Broussard Councilman Jesse Regan, also a Republican, have said they will run to replace Coussan.

This article originally published in the December 23, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.