Two open seats for the Louisiana Senate — one in Baton Rouge and the other in Lafayette — have each drawn three candidates ahead of a Feb. 15 special election.
Baton Rouge's District 14 covers downtown, some of the parish's poorest neighborhoods to the north and wealthiest neighborhoods to the south, and parts of LSU's flagship campus. Voters there will choose from a slate of three Black Democrats.
One is state Rep. Larry Selders, who has represented a portion of the capital city in the Louisiana House since 2019
Selders, a social worker, runs Focused Family Services, a mental health and substance abuse clinic, and owns Selders Development Group, an affordable rental housing development firm.
Another is Carolyn Hill, a social worker whose career has focused on policy and research. She works for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and owns Hill and Hills Associates, a political consulting firm.
Hill served a term on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2012 to 2016.
Quentin Anthony Anderson is also running in Baton Rouge. He owns a graphic and web design firm, Anderson Creative, and has worked on a variety of left-leaning social justice efforts.
Lafayette’s District 23 lies mostly south of Ambassador Caffery Parkway and west of Kaliste Saloom Road and also includes the towns of Scott and Youngsville. Voters in those areas will also choose among three candidates, including two well-known Republicans.
State Rep. Brach Myers, a Republican from Lafayette, was first elected to Legislature after a decisive win in 2023.
Myers is senior vice president of corporate development at LHC Group, a national home health care business.
Competing against Myers is Republican Broussard City Councilman Jesse Regan, first elected to that post in 2019.
Regan is a mortgage lender at Preferred Lending Solutions. He’s also a business owner and commercial and residential developer.
Myers and Regan will face Kristopher Harrison, who is now running as a Democrat. When Harrison originally signed up for the race Wednesday, he did so unaffiliated with any party, in part, he said, due to the $600 needed to file as a member of the party.
Harrison, a Lafayette native, is a cashier at Adrian's Supermarket.
The vacancies in the Legislature came open after two state senators won races for other political office in November. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, won a U.S. House seat and Jean-Paul Coussan, R-Lafayette, won a spot on the state Public Service Commission.
If no candidate wins a majority in the Feb. 15 primary, the runoff is March 29.