Who will be selecting the next leaders of the Louisiana Democratic Party? We’re about to have an answer to that question soon.
Once the results roll in from the Louisiana elections Saturday, March 23, we’ll know who voters have chosen to be on the Democratic State Central Committee, which should vote for party chair and other leadership positions next month.
There’s a total of 210 seats on the committee, two for each state House district. About half of those seats had only one candidate qualify to run, so they’re automatically on the committee. Another 24 had nobody qualify, meaning the next chair will appoint people to these seats after the April leadership election.
In other words, 84 seats are up for grabs on Saturday.
Vying for many of these seats are members of Blue Reboot, a group of both incumbent and new candidates committed to electing a new party chair. More than 40 Blue Reboot candidates also ran unopposed. In some of the New Orleans races, U.S. Congressman Troy Carter, a Democrat, has backed opponents of Blue Reboot candidates.
Some in the party blame current chair Katie Bernhardt for Democrats’ disastrous showing in the fall elections, often citing ads she made early last year in which she appeared to be considering a run for governor. There have also been many cases of infighting.
So far former state representative Randal Gaines, a Democrat from LaPlace, has officially thrown his name in the hat. Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis is considering a run, and some have mentioned two-time statewide candidate Caroline Fayard’s name as well.
After Saturday, we’ll have a better idea of how strong momentum is for the Blue Reboot reform candidates from seeing how well they fare against longtime party players, some of which have more name recognition, and others in the state’s most liberal and conservative districts.
One race to watch is the crowded field for Seat A in District 98 in New Orleans.
Carolin Fayard at her election night watch party in 2016.
Caroline Fayard, a local attorney and businesswoman, is running for the seat. She comes from a wealthy family that’s well-connected in politics, hosting fundraisers at their St. Charles mansion for politicians including the Clintons. She’s also been endorsed by Congressman Carter on his “True Blue” ballot.
Despite her political connections, she lost to her Republican opponents when she ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and U.S. Senate in 2016. In the years since, she’s stayed largely out of the public eye.
In a 2011 interview with Gambit, she described herself as a “a pro-life conservative” and said she didn’t support then-President Barack Obama, though she later said she voted for him. On the Senate campaign trail, she voiced her support for building the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
In an email Friday, Fayard did not specifically answer questions about whether she still identifies as "a pro-life conservative” or if she’d vote for Bernhardt or another candidate for party chair, should she not run herself.
Pamela Steeg at a Jewish Endowment Foundation event in 2019.
Blue Reboot’s candidate is Pamela Steeg, who is highlighting her fundraising experience on the boards of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Agenda for Children, New Orleans Early Education Network, Oschner Clinic Foundation and the National Council of Jewish Women.
Rep. Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat, recruited Steeg to run, saying she wanted an alternative to Fayard. “Pam has dedicated years to supporting reproductive rights, including being a great fundraiser,” Landry wrote on Instagram.
On her website, Steeg says she has “the resources and network to begin working immediately to build a new Democratic Party.”
Lindsey Cheek
Former Attorney General candidate Lindsey Cheek jumped in the race toward the end of qualifying. Though not the official Blue Reboot candidate, she worked with some of the organizers during her campaign last year. She lost that race.
Cheek is a trial lawyer at a law firm with her sister and touts wins for clients who worked in factories in Cancer Alley, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and got cancer. She is working on a series of lawsuits against the oil and gas industry for their role in wetlands loss and a cancer-death jury trial against Colgate-Palmolive.
Also in the race is Emily Faye Ratner, a civil rights and criminal defense attorney who also helps organize Patois: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival.
Ratner is similarly disappointed with current party leadership.
Emily Faye Ratner
“As I see it, the state Democratic Party leadership steered us into an existential threat in the last election,” she says. “After eight years with a Democrat for governor, our state party let a Republican supermajority walk into the legislature and functionally gave away the governor’s mansion ...”
Ratner wants to elect a new party chair and told Gambit that though she’s keeping “an open mind” about who to choose in the race, she’s “excited” about a potential Lewis run.
She says she believes she is "clearly the candidate who will push the hardest for progessive reform" in her race and says it's "worthy of note" that Blue Reboot endorsed Steeg over her.
"This feels to me like more of the dynamic of the current State Dems leadership — giving institutional support to more centrist candidates in districts where progressives can clearly win, given the right support," she says.
Over in Avoyelles Parish in Central Louisiana, there’s a lively race between lawyer Dan McKay Jr., an incumbent and ally of Bernhardt, and Blue Reboot candidate Anthony Wilson for seat 28 B.
Some Democrats in the parish are particularly upset with current party leadership after Democrat Shawn Wilson’s outright loss in the primary for governor, as his wife Rocki grew up not too far away from the area. That could work to the advantage of Anthony Wilson (no relation).
McKay is a longtime lawyer in the small town of Bunkie focusing on consumer bankruptcy and criminal defense. He’s worked both sides of the criminal legal system including 10 years as a public defender and 11 as an assistant district attorney. He lost a race for Bunkie City Judge in 2014.
In 2019, he was arrested for allegedly stalking and trespassing onto the property of an Avoyelles Police juror.
In his written campaign announcement for the seat, McKay decried critics of party leadership for “undermining the Democratic Party,” dismissing them as “a small group of individuals.”
“For the past four years our party has been attacked by a small group of individuals who engage in underhanded means to create dissension within the party at a time when we need unity more than ever before,” he wrote.
In a more apparent jab at Blue Reboot, many of whose organizers and recruits have publicly criticized Bernhardt and party leadership, McKay added, “These operatives have only a desire to create disharmony and have now recruited inexperienced candidates who they would control.”
His challenger Anthony Wilson of Marksville is vice president of food and beverage at Paragon Casino Resort. He’s lived in the parish since the ‘90s and has been a member of the Board for Holy Ghost Catholic School and a Little League coach. Before moving to the area, he played on LSU’s men’s basketball team.
Wilson says he wants to see more voter registration events in his community, particularly aimed at young people. He said he would consult with other members of Blue Reboot to determine what Bernhardt alternative to vote in as party chair.
There’s a similar battle for the 28A seat between Blue Reboot candidate Susan Martin and McKay-aligned candidate Robin O’Brien. Volunteers for the Blue Reboot candidates say they have been busy organizing get out the vote efforts, including coordinating with local ministers on a Soul to the Polls events and planning an Election Day cookout. They’re also running newspaper ads and canvassing.
In Jefferson Parish district that includes parts of Marrero and Harvey, Lafitte, Jean Lafitte, all the way down to Grand Isle, there’s a three-way race for seat 84B between incumbent and Blue Reboot candidate Michael Flowers, Jefferson Parish Council Member Byron Lee, and former council candidate Jon Mitchell.
Jon Mitchell
Flowers is wrapping up his first terms on DSCC and the Jefferson Parish Democratic Parish Executive Committee, on which he serves as third vice chair, and is running for reelection on both committees.
He did not vote for Bernhardt for chair in 2020 and has pledged not to vote for her this year. He said he would support Davante Lewis for chair should he run.
“I want Louisiana ... to be much more attractive to young people, and we need a party platform, party candidates, and policies that reflect that,” Flowers told Gambit.
Lee is one of two Democrats on the Jefferson Parish Council, and he was reelected to a second term last year. He received bipartisan and prominent endorsements in that race, including from Carter, who he describes as a “childhood friend.”
Mitchell is a real estate investor and agent with a military background. He lost a crowded Jefferson Parish council race in 2019.
Jefferson Parish Council Member Byron Lee in January 2024
He was on the “Democratic Party Committee Ballot,” a mailer endorsing candidates for DSCC and DPEC races in Jefferson Parish. No such committee appears to exist, and party insiders say Derrick Shepherd and/or his allies are likely behind the ballot.
If so, that could explain why Mitchell’s name is on the ballot over Lee, Shepherd’s political foe. The ballot endorses also endorses both Mitchell and Flowers for DPEC.
Shepherd did not return two requests for comment.
Registered Louisiana Democrats can vote for both DSCC and DPEC candidates on Saturday, March 23. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
It’s the smaller races — for offices rarely talked about — that are the ones to watch on March 23.
More than a hundred reform-minded Louisianans are running for slots on the party’s central committee.