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New Orleans DSA Endorses

Council At-Large Division 2: Pastor Gregory Manning #32

Council District A: Bob Murrell #37

Council District C: Jackson Kimbrell #41

Council District E: Danyelle Christmas #49

New Orleans DSA Recommends

Clerk of Criminal District Court: Calvin Duncan #7

Assessor: Casius Pealer #11

Council District D: AGAINST Eugene Green #44

Home Rule Charter Amendment (Fair Chance Amendment): Yes

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​Early voting is September 27 through October 4. Visit GeauxVote to check your registration and find your polling location.

Orleans Parish
Mayor | Sheriff | Clerk of Criminal District Court | Assessor | City Council At-Large Division 1 | City Council At-Large Division 2 | City Council District A | City Council District C | City Council District D | City Council District E | Parishwide Home Rule Charter Amendment

Jefferson Parish
Mayor of Lafitte

St. Tammany Parish
Mayor of Slidell

The Trump administration is sending federal agents and National Guard to occupy American cities, disappearing people into ICE detention, and continuing the genocide in Gaza. The religious right have criminalized reproductive healthcare and are targeting LGBTQ+ rights. The Supreme Court is rigging election maps and laws. Billionaires control the major media platforms and the algorithms that steer you to their manufactured trends. We are fully immersed in an authoritarian crisis and our own local electeds are building the surveillance networks and jail cells that the fascists are using to strangle free speech and assembly. This is what’s at stake.

How are candidates auditioning for the fight? Well, many are fiddling around with ChatGPT and uploading AI slop to their socials. Candidate surveys used to be hard to come by and thin on details, because it takes a lot of time to thoughtfully answer so many questions. But in this cycle, candidates are churning out dozens of five-paragraph essays with all the hallmarks of large language models: most restate the prompt, offer superficial policy proposals riddled with empty jargon, sprinkle in three-item series and em dashes everywhere, add an obscure statistic here and there, and repeatedly use this sentence pattern: This campaign is not just about [some cliché]–it’s also about [some other cliché].

Frauds and grifters co-opting progressive vocabulary is nothing new, and we’ve long had Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg controlling our media ecosystem. But now, as Entergy positions itself to steal power away from communities for their massive new data centers, and generative content destroys our cognitive function and our environment, do we also have to vote for some idiot whose primary political handler is an algorithm channeling Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk? Hell no.

DSA and all of our candidates aren’t giving any ground to fascism. We adopted a Resolution to Prohibit Chapter Use of AI-Generated Content that we stand by. We ran a slate of candidates to explicitly reject the far-right leadership in Baton Rouge and DC. We believe in democracy—a society organized by and for the working class. We believe in socialism—a society based on equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships. We are the Democratic Socialists of America, and we believe in fighting fascism whenever and wherever it appears.

Join New Orleans DSA in building a future for the people and not for profit. Read our national political program Workers Deserve More!

Orleans Parish

Mayor

Eileen Carter (no party) & Richard “Ricky” Twiggs (no party)

Former Latoya Cantrell social media manager Eileen Carter (#CityOfYES) is all-in on the future. Specifically, a future where public officials repackage saccharine AI slop as policy. What’s her vision? “[V]ision—a bold, shared path forward for New Orleans. Vision isn’t just a buzzword. It means investing in what matters and getting back to the basics with a new perspective.” How do we get there? “Boosting economic and workforce development through trade schools, skill development, neighborhood business supports, AI, new indust….” Wait, did an AI write this?

Well, would the proud native New Orleanian daughter of BOLD founder Ken Carter and sister of former state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson call music and restaurants “emerging industries” in the undisputed capital of both? No, but the Silicon Valley architects of DOGE and ChatGPT would shake down civil servants for reports every 90 days to “review existing processes, evaluate effectiveness, and propose solutions to increase satisfaction and productivity.” All this actually tracks, coming from a candidate who, along with Belden “Noonie Man” Batiste, allowed herself to be the face of Trump donor and Walk-Ons co-owner Richard Farrell’s effort to recall Mayor Cantrell.

Let’s switch over to newcomer Ricky Twiggs. Verite asks, Who is supporting your campaign?

“This campaign is backed by the people—not powerbrokers. My support comes from young organizers, working-class families, mental health workers, educators, artists, and small business owners who are exhausted by politics as usual. We’ve rejected…”

WAIT (em dash) Eileen Carter, what was “your” answer to this question?

“My campaign is powered by the people of New Orleans—the ones who have spent years being told to be resilient, who’ve weathered storms both literal and systemic, and who are now ready not just to survive, but to thrive. Our supporters are the youth, teachers, essential workers, hospitality workers, small business owners, artists, elders, and young leaders who know the strength it takes to rebuild time and again. We’re tired of…”

Ok, but LinkedIn is big again, hasn’t everyone just been conditioned to write this vapidly?

Well, VOTE asks, What would you do about community-based gun violence?

Ricky Twiggs: “[O]ur NORD centers will become the second anchor—not just recreational spaces, but active hubs of community protection, healing, and opportunity. Each NORD center will be equipped with trauma-informed staff, community mentors, violence interrupters, and youth outreach teams trained to respond to conflict and crisis before police are ever called.”

Eileen Carter: “We will establish “thriving hubs” that offer mentorship, violence interruption training, trauma-informed care, and community-building events while connecting residents to city services.”

Do you support the ordinance to allow surveillance technology (facial recognition, predictive algorithms, “real-time crime centers,” etc.)?

Ricky Twiggs: “No, I do not support the use of facial recognition, predictive algorithms, or real-time crime centers as they are currently being deployed without public consent, transparency, or oversight. The secret implementation of over 200 surveillance cameras by NOPD under “Project NOLA” is a clear violation of public trust.”

Eileen Carter: “I do not support the pending ordinance to expand the use of surveillance technologies such as facial recognition, predictive algorithms, and real-time crime centers—especially in the absence of clear oversight, transparency, and community input. The recent revelations surrounding the NOPD’s use of facial recognition technology through “Project NOLA” without public awareness or proper accountability were troubling. Trust between law enforcement and the community cannot exist when surveillance is conducted in secret.”

So these candidates didn’t come up with any of their own answers? No, we’re not saying that. In fact, we’re pretty sure Ricky Twiggs actually wrote this excerpt:

“When I returned to New Orleans after Katrina. [sic: sub comma for period] I saw Latino and Black men working together to rebuild our city. Thousands of undocumented workers, many from Latin America, gutted our homes with our black [sic: needs capitalization], white, [and] vietanamese [sic] neighbors. Together we restored schools [confusing verb choice], repaired our levees [did you?], fixed businessses [sic], and did so under extreme conditions with little legal protection [what?].”

We could do this all day.

Helena Moreno (D), Royce Duplessis (D) & Oliver Thomas (D)

The key to understanding this campaign season lies in one of its stupidest episodes. In July, major Moreno financier Bill Hammack sent an email to campaign insiders that flirted with the boundaries of illegal campaign-PAC coordination and encouraged the campaign to do a bit of cheap race baiting. The story went nearly unnoticed, except for one thing—Hammack accidentally CCed Royce Duplessis.

Hammack has lots of friends in politics, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’d get a couple of candidates mixed up. During the debates, they even argued over whose donor Hammack was. And that’s the point. No matter who you vote for, your next mayor has spent most of their career pandering to the business, real estate, and tourism ownership class that has been misruling this city for decades.

This year, the abundant forums, the questionnaires that look like the products of ChatGPT, and the nonsense and shenanigans of “content creators” taking payola are obscuring who these candidates really are, and more importantly, how they might meet the challenges of the coming term.

The most immediate is an estimated $65 million budget deficit (or maybe $100 million—the number keeps changing). The budget is complicated. Revenues come from fragmented streams of dedicated purpose taxes, state and federal grants, city-issued bonds, or special trusts with their own rules. And they go into siloed pools like the general fund or get disbursed through a byzantine array of boards and commissions contracting with a shifting blob of nonprofits. Not knowing which knob turns which spigot actually makes politicians’ self-dealing easier—there’s always someone or something else to blame.

So far, officials are blaming overspending on the January snow and the security theater from the New Year’s Bourbon Street incident. But some revenue benchmarks were evident as early as May, and that alarmed what was left of the outgoing administration enough to halt discretionary spending and institute a hiring freeze. It projects incompetence, and the hostile actors from outside and within the city have used this budget crisis to attack city workers, slash government services, and use the police to harass vulnerable populations.

Oliver Thomas drew criticism for his tone-deaf description of his platform as “Project 2025 NOLA,” but there’s actually a truer local analog to the Heritage Foundation’s assaultive blueprint. The City Services Coalition, chaired by developer Pres Kabacoff and attorney David Marcello, is jammed with 90s-era neoliberalisms about “streamlining” and “cutting red tape.” The report itself is a direct attack on worker protections, and proposes scrapping city workers’ retirement pension in favor of a “defined contribution” model. Conservatives in power have attacked city workers and their retirements before, but a budget crisis always exacerbates the threat.

Kabacoff’s group includes many prominent names in the business and social hierarchy, and we can be sure they have the ear of every major candidate on the ballot. Even to the AFSCME 2349 City Workers Union, Moreno starts with an, “I respect what Civil Service is trying to do,” before resetting to a, “however,” she wants there to be “balance” in management practices. Duplessis similarly hedges that even though “we must approach it very carefully,” privatization might sometimes be a viable option. Thomas gives the strongest rhetoric, but he also advocated summarily dismissing a firefighter when “Libs of Tik Tok” manufactured outrage over a Charlie Kirk post. As Republican administrations assault government services and the workers who provide them, we’ll need a mayor willing to fight back on our behalf. Unfortunately, none of these candidates will betray what the local gentry has to say.

We have already seen this collaborationist approach in the local response to the Landry Administration’s meddling. Duplessis supposedly offers a unique ability to “get people in the room,” like when he advised the Landry transition team, but the term started with rolling back some of Duplessis’s moderate, but hard won, sentencing reforms when he failed to get anyone “in the room.” Next, Landry moved in a “Troop NOLA” division of the State Police, and is now asking Trump to put 1,000 National Guard troops on the streets. The candidates expressed skepticism about the deployment, but their own long histories of welcoming State Police to circumvent NOPD’s consent decree (if sometimes quibbling over who would be in charge) show they aren’t meaningfully out of step with even the governor.

Consider Thomas’s failed facial recognition and surveillance ordinance—he and Eugene Green continued to naïvely or dishonestly insist that “guardrails” would prevent its abuse. But runaway police budgets with technological snake oil are a tried and true formula for graft. The frequently proposed and highly dubious ShotSpotter (rebranded as SoundThinking) board of directors includes prominent local names, including one previous mayor. Consider Duplessis’s promise to the Downtown Development District to “set the tone” and “send a message that certain things are just not going to be tolerated”—such as jaywalking. Or Thomas banning food distribution to homeless people. Or that man taking time out of his own day to personally harass them on the street. Get a job.

For the Super Bowl, Governor Landry swept as many unhoused people as he could find into an unheated warehouse. A key Moreno refrain is to operate the city like it’s the “Super Bowl every day,” which means handing $40 million to business lobbyist Michael Hecht (at the Governor’s behest) to pave roads in tourist areas and cover up the derelict Plaza Tower with advertisements. Moreno talks about bringing public works functions back in-house, but her actions say otherwise.

Among Duplessis’s land use accomplishments is the publicly subsidized real estate boondoggle known as the River District. This package included hefty tax breaks for project developers and a sweetheart PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) deal for Shell that Council signed off on—which is to say Moreno voted for it, too. Now Thomas proudly points out that he voted against the River District PILOT, but that was more about turf than principle—when asked about development in the East, he spoke approvingly of special taxing districts there.

Each also throws out a unique target for affordable housing units—Moreno at 55,000, Duplessis 40,000, and Thomas bidding low at 10,000—but how many more PILOTS and favors will they give away before coming close to any of those goals?

All this comes as Washington targets cities with literal occupation and ICE raids and kidnappings. Despite this daily terrorizing, the candidates have taken no stands against it. At a VOTE forum this summer, Thomas went out of his way to say, “illegal aliens who are criminals don’t need to be here,” though he qualified that by saying there should be “a humane way” to deport them.

Trump is also just targeting quality of life in cities like New Orleans—which has still not recovered the 10% of our urban tree canopy lost to Katrina—by canceling a million-dollar tree planting grant by labeling it a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” program. Will the next mayor speak for the trees? Given their tepid or non-existent defenses for everything else, don’t count on it.

On that environmental note, it is worth noting that Helena Moreno comes from oil money. Her father’s company refines petroleum products into industrial lubricants. Her husband spent most of his career at an investment banking firm that services the energy sector. She has accepted contributions from Entergy throughout her career in politics. In their voter guide, Antigravity dings her for her ties to petrochemical interests and her failure to protect New Orleans ratepayers from the maneuverings of Entergy or the private equity backed Delta Utilities firm that has spun off its gas services. DSA, in contrast, advocates for publicly owned utilities. Breaking one corporate for-profit leech into two is still going in the wrong direction, so with no mayoral candidate willing to take on these behemoths, consider the Make Entergy Pay campaign instead.

Finally, consider their inaction on the genocide in Gaza. At the 2023 Vigil for Israel, Duplessis acknowledged “the innocent victims in all countries and those who are suffering in Gaza and suffering in Israel,” but has fallen silent as the world watches the Israeli state wield American arms to commit unspeakable atrocities. Moreno, Thomas, and the whole Council have ignored months of lobbying and protest by Palestine activists demanding a ceasefire resolution, and instead voted for a “Statement for Peace” resolution specifically calculated to maintain an illusion of neutrality.

They don’t want to admit it, but there are tangible actions local officeholders can take against these atrocities. All they’ve been asked to do is to sign non-binding resolutions, and they can’t be bothered to put even a light thumb on that scale. What does that say about taking on much riskier fights on behalf of their hometown?

All told, their main objections to right-wing attacks are based on the prerogatives of turf and patronage. They seem fine with anti-immigrant policy, invasive police powers, hostility toward the homeless, and with the general abuses of our corrupt capitalist system—provided they get to pull the levers and dole out the spoils. Our task in the coming years is to demand better of whoever occupies the mayor’s office. Hopefully we can make those demands heard above whatever comes in the next mass email.

Frank M. Scurlock (no party)

It wouldn’t be a ballot without Frank Scurlock. You may know him from inheriting his dad’s Space Walk bounce house business, you may know him from his bizarrely religious skyplane advertising over the city, you may know him from his racist efforts to preserve Confederate monuments, or you may actually be the Uber driver who found him in her backseat with “his pants around his ankles, his shirt pulled up and his erect penis in his hand.” Or you may know him from Streisanding himself by suing the Times-Picayune for reporting he had been arrested for having his pants around his ankles, his shirt pulled up, and his erect penis in his hand in the back of an Uber. Yea, Frank, who uses Uber?

The website for his “100% Self-Funded” campaign greets you with a “Make New Orleans Great Again” pop-up to donate. Despite that request, his campaign remains “100% self-funded.” We appreciate Frank because he’s a walking billboard for radical wealth redistribution.

Renada Collins (no party)

Business coach Renada Collins was ready to leave New Orleans—for good. She was planning to move to Colorado. However, God told her, “Renada, don’t run from the city–run for the city!” She accepted the mission, and now she’s got her boxing gloves on and is ready to fight for it all (sound on). For life and liberty, equal opportunity, justice for all. Weee reeaady for Renada Collins as mayor for New Orleans? 

At the Urban League forum she said she wouldn’t translate any government documents because in New Orleans we speak English. So, maybe not.

Manny “Chevrolet” Bruno (no party)

Has any mayor ever been as good as Manny Chevrolet might be? We may never know. Chevrolet is campaigning on banning short term rentals, converting blighted properties to housing for the homeless and public gardens, using a gun buyback program to reduce violence without resorting to racist and ineffective criminalization, and defunding the jail and expanding violence interruption and youth outreach efforts. If you’ve never thrown actor and serial candidate Manny Chevrolet a first round vote, this might be the year to try it on and see how it feels. Although backing off his 2021 campaign pledge of a nine-day weekend has some questioning his seriousness.

Joseph “Joe” Bikulege (no party)

Donald Trump wants federal troops occupying New Orleans. Joe Bikulege, what do you think about that? “As a city with progressive values in a conservative state and more conservative federal government, we have to welcome help, but we have to make sure they have the same goals. NOPD should take the lead.” No thanks.

Bikulege owns Le Bon Temps Roulé.

Russell J. Butler (no party)

“The Grain Train = JOBS. As mayor I will support the grain train. The city of New Orleans is not in a position to squander opportunities for our young people.” (Instagram @butlerfornolamayor, 1 like). 

The Grain Train is a scarcely publicized major industrial project that would bring daily trains through Holy Cross to the Alabo Street Wharf on the Mississippi. It would add harmful grain dust to the neighborhood’s air, eliminate a half-mile of levee access, sever the levee trail between Holy Cross and Arabi, invite pests to eat the loose grain and gators to eat the fish it’ll attract, and add “horrific grain explosion” to the list of ways the river levee could fail.

“I am deeply shocked and saddened by this decision.” (Nola.com, “New Orleans council has decriminalized sex work for crime victims.”)

Jesus Christ, dude. Let’s move on.

Frank Robert Janusa (R)

Frank Janusa brings five decades’ experience as a CPA to “solve the critical fiscal problems of the city.” He says, “Running as a Republican, I have better access to the Republican federal government and the Republican state government.” Unfortunately for us, the Republican fiscal plan at the federal and state levels means defunding Medicaid and SNAP, abandoning vaccine and cancer research, kneecapping the Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Internal Revenue Service, and then starting tariff trade wars to funnel us into low-wage jobs because we no longer have healthcare and education but still need to buy inflated groceries to survive.

Who benefits? The fossil fuel companies driving our climate collapse, the billionaires desperately prepping to insulate themselves from it, and the cops eager to serve their billionaire masters. These people have no interest in our survival outside of using us for our cheap labor. 

None of this is good for New Orleanians. For that matter, neither is any of this: “I have spoken to homeless people all over this city and they simply need information and outreach.” “[T]each young people how to behave when they are approached by a policeman.” “Education about the prison system and the judicial system needs to be delivered to the children at a young age—to change the mentality of the youth.”

Sheriff

Susan Hutson (D)

Susan Hutson is the incumbent after winning the Anyone-But-Marlin-Gusman 2021 Election. We told you back then that Gusman was unfit for office because he abandoned thousands of people “in their cells without food or water for days as [Katrina’s] floodwaters rose toward the ceiling.” The Department of Justice put his office under a consent decree for running a “violent and dangerous institution” responsible for more than 65 in-custody deaths, and he ran a corrupt operation with nepotism hires, backroom construction deals, and hefty campaign bribes from private contractors.

The sheriff is responsible for the custody and care of the thousands of individuals who cycle through the Orleans Justice Center every year. Every bed we build is an unhoused person being caged in a cell instead of placed in a house. Every bed adds state capacity to take a union worker, a Palestinian protester, or a striking teacher off the frontline. The department received $80 million from City Council, an additional $15 million in August, and will begin building another 89-bed facility this year.

Since being elected, DA Jason Williams and the Criminal District Court judges’ skyrocketing bonds have sabotaged reform efforts, surging the jail’s population from an all-time low of 720 to now nearly 1500. The legal limit is 1250. Hutson hasn’t kept up with the management challenges of a facility riddled with overspending on contracts and poor living standards. For those inside, that has meant living with a constant threat of violence, lack of basic necessities, and inadequate care. A nationally publicized escape caused her to suspend her campaign, and since then she’s only managed to raise $14,905. 

Despite her mismanagement, Hutson has not shown the malice that sheriffs typically have for those under their care. Hutson has not backed off her promise to refuse collaboration with ICE, and she has been a firm supporter of the Travis Hill School inside the facility. She fulfilled her campaign promises to end contracts with communications monopoly Securus and medical care contractor Wellpath. Hutson is endorsed by VOTE, the AFL-CIO, and the UTNO teachers union.

Two things can be true: Hutson has not demonstrated that she can lead the department effectively, and all of her opponents are worse.

Michelle Woodfork (D)

Michelle Woodfork was an NOPD officer for 35 years, culminating with her appointment as Interim Superintendent. She was on the shortlist for the permanent job, but was passed over for Anne Kirkpatrick after allegations of domestic violence entered the campaign. Woodfork was brought into DA Jason Williams’s office to join the new Open Source Intelligence unit, which opaquely uses AI to throw you in jail for the people you hang around and the things you post online. Williams has spent his time advocating for higher bonds and driving up the jail population under Hutson, and now he’s throwing his support behind Woodfork.

Like Williams, Woodfork welcomes agencies like the Louisiana State Police, a state-sponsored gang with a “statewide pattern or practice of using excessive force, which violates the Fourth Amendment.” The Biden DOJ released a last-gasp report in January, saying, “Although LSP’s motto is ‘Courtesy, Loyalty, Service,’ we identified many instances of troopers using profane and degrading language against citizens, including, ‘I will blow your fucking head off,’ ‘[let me] see your fucking hands or I’ll shoot your fucking ass,’ ‘back the fuck off,’ and ‘turn the fuck over.’” Williams also made a deal with Governor Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill to exhume exiled former DA Leon Cannizzaro to prosecute New Orleanians again. But Woodfork doesn’t even stop there—she also welcomes a federal military presence.

While Woodfork’s survey responses leave little daylight between her and Hutson, her history with NOPD and position in the DA’s office show she won’t be an ally to those hoping to see fewer New Orleanians in cages.

Julian Parker (D)

Julian Parker is a former Criminal District Court judge and state and federal prosecutor. Now 70 years old, Parker’s campaign focuses on preventing drug overdoses, having “studied criminal law for 40 years.” As a judge, he was notoriously known as the “hanging judge” for his over-the-top sentences. In clerk of court candidate Calvin Duncan’s memoir, “The Jailhouse Lawyer,” Duncan recounts his horror at Parker sentencing a young man to 60 years for robbery without even blinking. Parker also sentenced a man to 99 years for a robbery that turned out to be fabricated. He called defendants in his courtroom “the criminal element,” and he once refused to allow any non-bail releases for defendants in his court, demanding even destitute people with non-violent charges pay money to get out of jail. Parker retired in 2014 and tried to join DA Jason Williams’s office in 2022, but didn’t have an active law license.

Edwin Mark Shorty (D)

Algiers Constable Edwin Shorty is a personal injury and bankruptcy attorney, constable of 2nd City Court, and now a candidate for sheriff.

As a personal injury attorney, his practice included representing plaintiffs who staged highway accidents with trucking companies. Sometimes these plaintiffs were family members. As a bankruptcy attorney, he represents Council At-Large District 1 candidate Delisha Boyd in her foreclosure case. The sheriff handles foreclosures. As a 2nd City Court Constable, he supervised a deputy “who stood by during a report of a nearby rape in progress.” The deputy resigned before Shorty ever disciplined him. As a candidate, he’s illegally having his on-duty, in-uniform public employees put up campaign signs outside of schools. 

Will he accept campaign contributions from those who receive contracts from the sheriff? Yes. Does he support a public oversight commission that is accountable to the people of New Orleans? No. Shorty’s mailers advertise using coerced inmate labor to do the cleanup jobs that we should be paying city workers living wages to do. He talks about working to “speed justice to prevent jail overcrowding” (the sheriff has nothing to do with that). He wants to use reserve deputies to help NOPD in the streets. Sir, no one wants to work for you; where are you getting extra deputies to go be Wobble Cops? Finally, Shorty ignores the facility’s widely beloved Travis Hill School—and everything we know about trauma and youth development—to pivot to a reductive National Guard and Marines model for juveniles.

A vote for Shorty is a vote to return to the cruel and counterproductive Marlin Gusman era of Orleans sheriffs. He is endorsed by the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee and has raised the second largest amount, well behind Woodfork but well ahead of the rest of the field.

Ernesteayo J. “Ernest” Lee (R)

Ernest Lee is a former Jefferson, Orleans, and St. John Parish sheriff’s deputy and current safety officer for LCMC Health. He proposes overcoming low staffing numbers by having higher ranking employees fill in for routine security shifts. His jail will collaborate with ICE to turn over immigrants in custody. His campaign finance total is $2000 of his own money to pay for food and supplies for meet and greets.

Robert “Bob” Murray (D)

Bob Murray is a former sheriff’s deputy and current security consultant. The security consultant wants to contract with private security firms to hire 100 private security guards at the jail. He wants to add an onsite daycare for his staff. Breaking from the current administration’s policy, he pledges to fully collaborate with Jeff Landry to turn immigrants over to ICE. He got 2% of the vote when he ran for City Council District D in 2021.

Clerk of Criminal District Court

Darren Lombard (D)

The clerk of court keeps court records, assembles jury pools, and staffs election polling locations. Incumbent Darren Lombard’s staff had to manually search a city dump because someone threw away “hundreds of sensitive criminal court records.” Under Lombard’s leadership, the court had to cancel criminal trials for two months in 2023 because they had been illegally excluding people with felony convictions from serving on juries for over a year and a half. Now he’s short 300 poll workers with the election around the corner (you can sign up here). 

The victories he does claim haven’t even happened yet as we approach the end of his first term. Criminal court still doesn’t have an electronic filing system, court records aren’t accessible 24/7, and Louisiana hasn’t reversed the end of early Sunday voting (early voting skips Sundays because Souls to the Polls efforts were too successful at getting Black churchgoers to the polls).

It’s never been a flashy job, and doing it well largely means making sure a lot of daily bureaucratic processes happen without mistakes. But when the right wing is ready to withhold resources, use federal troop intimidation, and outright cheat to maintain power in 2026, is this the guy who’s going to lead the fight against that? Not if he’s still promising to eventually put daily court calendars online, four years into his term.

Calvin Duncan (D) 🌹

New Orleans DSA recommends Calvin Duncan for Clerk of Criminal District Court.

Calvin Duncan was one of the principal architects of the legal strategy to overturn Louisiana’s system of non-unanimous juries, a success achieved at the US Supreme Court in 2020. Wrongfully arrested at 19 for murder, Duncan was sentenced to die at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Refusing to give in to the crushing weight of Louisiana’s criminal legal system, Duncan became a jailhouse lawyer and helped other incarcerated men research their cases, file appeals, and overturn their convictions. 

Duncan tried challenging his own case, but could not get access to police reports, witness statements, and other records. When he finally got Innocence Project New Orleans to take his case, those records showed that prosecutors had hidden evidence that proved his innocence. After 28 years wrongfully imprisoned at Angola, Duncan co-founded The First 72+ re-entry program, graduated from Tulane, and earned a law degree. He’s now a research associate at Loyola’s Jesuit Social Research Institute, pushing for criminal justice reform. 

People wonder why the clerk of court is an elected position, and justifiably so. Duncan knows what it means if the clerk of court doesn’t preserve court records and doesn’t give people access to them: human beings, like Duncan himself, languish in prison without a chance to challenge the evidence against them. He is endorsed by VOTE.

Valencia Miles (no party)

This is Valencia Miles’s first time running for office, saying she was inspired to make a difference after losing her son to gun violence. She has not yet received any contributions.

Assessor

Erroll G. Williams (D)

Errol Williams has been Orleans Parish Assessor since 1985—longer than half of New Orleanians have been alive. In that time, he has rarely faced real opposition. His long tenure has been marked by decisions that favor large commercial property owners while burdening ordinary homeowners. 

In 2020, Williams slashed the taxable value of hotels and other big commercial properties by as much as 57%, citing the pandemic, even as residential property taxes went up. He also left a staggering $155 million in business property off the rolls—about $10.5 million in lost tax revenue—by improperly extending tax breaks for corporations like Folgers Coffee Company years past their legal limit under Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program. ITEP exemptions are granted for five years with the chance to seek approval for a second five-year term, but Williams’s office had a long-standing policy of automatically extending every expired instance.

State audits have repeatedly flagged problems, highlighting a lack of transparency and fairness in the current system. In 2024, a legislative audit found his office likely engaged in the illegal practice of “sales chasing,” inflating the values of recently sold homes by an average of 13.3%. That meant thousands of families, especially in working-class neighborhoods, paid hundreds more than neighbors in similar houses who hadn’t sold. Williams has also overseen the removal of thousands of homestead exemptions, disproportionately hurting seniors and low-income homeowners who rely on them to stay in their homes.

That same year, a parish-wide reassessment drove values up about 20% overall, with some homeowners hit with increases over 50%. Appeals flooded in—in fact, in some years, Orleans Parish alone has made up more than 90% of all appeals statewide. A big reason for public distrust is the fee structure: the Assessor’s office takes 2% of all property taxes collected each year, a setup watchdogs warn incentivizes higher assessments whether or not they’re fair.

Williams also consistently attempts to inflate assessments on affordable housing projects and nonprofit spaces like schools, museums, and community centers, wasting further resources on court cases and appeals.

His campaign mostly hinges on promises to double the current homestead exemption, a proposal that has recently failed in the state legislature. Any changes to the current homestead exemption would ultimately require a two‐thirds vote in both chambers and a statewide referendum in a constitutional amendment. That’s a high bar and would also result in lost revenue, which the city would have to make up elsewhere by either raising other taxes or cutting services and where that might be remains to be seen.

Williams casts himself as steady and experienced. But after nearly four decades, his record shows a consistent pattern of favoritism, secrecy, and unfair treatment. His candidacy represents a clear continuation of the problematic practices that have plagued his office, despite current promises to modernize his office by “having artificial intelligence installed.” Voters who want meaningful reform and accountability should look elsewhere.

Casius H. Pealer (D) 🌹

New Orleans DSA recommends Casius Pealer for Assessor.

Casius Pealer is an architect, attorney, affordable housing advocate, and Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane’s School of Architecture. He has worked on hundreds of millions of dollars in community projects and has been active in national housing initiatives. Now, as a first-time candidate for assessor, he is running on a platform of fairness and transparency.

Pealer has been one of the sharpest critics of Errol Williams’s assessor’s office. He has called out the practice of “sales chasing,” which drives up assessments for families who just bought a home while leaving longtime owners with lower valuations. On the equally thorny question of short-term rentals, Pealer stresses that decisions like these must be made fairly and transparently to address residents’ complex needs, but also acknowledges that STRs should likely be removed from neighborhood sales data due to the risk of inflated neighborhood values, particularly in gentrifying areas.

He proposes publishing annual reports on all property tax breaks and exemptions so the public can see who benefits. He also wants to simplify the appeals process, which many homeowners find confusing and inaccessible. His approach, he argues, would reduce costly disputes and restore trust in the office.

Pealer has criticized the city’s plans to double the homestead exemption, which gives wealthy homeowners the same tax break as struggling families while draining about $40 million a year from the city budget. He also argues that the current tax system is inequitable: homeowners have access to homestead exemptions, but renters have no comparable relief and would end up shouldering higher costs. 

He speaks often about how the assessor’s office and housing policy can and should work together to benefit everyone in Orleans Parish: homeowners, but also renters and small business owners. He emphasizes that renters also pay property taxes, since landlords pass the costs into rent. In New Orleans, where the median renter income is less than $34,000, more than half of renters are already cost-burdened, and rising property taxes can amount to two months’ rent each year. He notes that 13,000 seniors rent their homes with no protections, and points to “circuit breaker” programs in 30 other states that tie property taxes to income, helping both homeowners and renters avoid being priced out. Louisiana’s own constitution even allows for renter tax relief, but the current assessor has ignored that while pursuing larger exemptions for homeowners.

Pealer’s background in housing and real estate development, combined with his clear responses to problematic aspects of Williams’s record, position him as a credible reformer. Where Williams has spent decades entrenching favoritism and opacity, Pealer’s campaign offers a path toward equity and accountability.

Coreygerard Dowden (no party)

Coreygerard Dowden, a Tulane football alum with a brief stint in arena football and the NFL, is running for assessor without party affiliation. He lists his main qualification as “studying the current Assessor” and has said he would use Errol Williams as an advisor.

One LinkedIn profile lists him as a Sales & Marketing specialist for MR New Orleans mister Apples with a second profile listing him as CEO at Mr. New Orleans. He has seemingly called himself “the unlikely candidate who will reevaluate every parcel of land on the tax rolls with unbiased transparency.”

Very little info exists about Dowden’s plans for office. His questionnaire answers are short, show few policy specifics, and emphasize things like in-home inspections and rules “to prevent and protect residents.” Dowden does not have a campaign website and has no published endorsements.

Earl “Jay” Schmitt, Jr (R)

Jay Schmitt, Republican candidate for assessor, is an attorney, appraiser, and notary who has taught real estate courses, managed appraisal companies, and served as an expert witness in state and federal courts. He touts decades of experience in real estate, law, and education as qualifications for the role of assessor.

Schmitt has proposed random home inspections and suggestion boxes in assessor’s offices to address “sales chasing,” raising the homestead exemption to $150,000, and creating special exemptions for groups such as young couples, the disabled, and the poor. He also pledged free assistance for property owners filing appeals. Much of his platform, however, leans on incorporating and “improving” Errol Williams’s ideas, rather than offering a clear break from current practices. 

Schmitt’s candidacy is overshadowed by a 1974 federal conviction for stealing $24 million in U.S. Treasury notes. We can’t know for sure that this is the same Earl J. Schmitt but somebody with that name, and with Jr. attached at the end, seemingly the same age, practicing law in New Orleans at the same time, was convicted of theft and disbarred with the potential of re-admittance after a period of at least five years. 

The assessor’s office manages billions in property tax assessments and requires public trust. Despite his long résumé, Schmitt’s track record and his reliance on the current assessor’s policies cast serious doubt on his suitability for the role.

City Council At-Large Division 1

Matthew Willard (D)

Matthew Willard is the state representative for District 97, which covers parts of Gentilly and New Orleans East. During his six years in the legislature, he has moved meaningful legislation through a deeply conservative statehouse. He got Governor Landry to sign HB 190 and HB 272 to improve birthing outcomes through midwife and doula access in a state that ranks 47th in maternal mortality. He’s also passed bills to lower insulin costs and end estimated water billing. Additionally, he secured continued access to fortified roof grants that bring down insurance costs in hurricane-prone South Louisiana.

Efforts to rein in billing practices at the Sewerage & Water Board could bode well for Willard as a potential utility regulator. His efforts on HB 525 worked in lockstep with the current City Council, resulting in the installation of new meters to improve billing transparency. In his campaign materials, he lists utility oversight as a priority and says that he’ll “push Entergy to harden the grid, invest in microgrids, and stop making ratepayers shoulder the cost of every storm.” He’s just so close. Say it with us Matt: “Make. Entergy. Pay!”

Willard has a good deal of policy overlap with Moreno on creating more government transparency and accountability, including launching a City Services Dashboard, reforming the New Orleans Recreation Department, and restoring essential services such as trash pick-up, street repair, and drainage. Endorsements for Willard hail from VOTE and Step Up for Action, and he’s picked up the official nod from the Times-Picayune. He’s managed to pick up donations from hotel and tourism groups under the banner of the New Orleans Hospitality Coalition PAC, and the endorsement of hotel workers organized under Unite Here! Local 23. Donor standouts include $10,000 from the family of Leslie Jacobs, the neoliberal architect of New Orleans’ post-Katrina charter school expansion. The worst endorsement, though, was the faux-handwritten one mailed “from the desk of Stacy Head,” whose stationery is apparently paid for by sitting State Rep. Aimee Adatto Friedman.

Delisha Boyd (D)

State Rep. Delisha Boyd is making headlines for mixing campaign donation dollars with PAC donation dollars, fudging transactions to a non-existent company, and then having that non-existent company cover payments to avoid foreclosure on her English Turn home. Whew! In a state that consistently loosens its campaign finance and ethics laws around self-dealing, how careless do you have to be to get caught up in a scandal like this? With support from fellow English Turn politicos like Troy Carter, Freddie King III, Gary Carter Jr., and Edwin Shorty, Boyd adds a giant, flashing neon sign that says “CORRUPTION HERE” to the subdivision, pending HOA approval. 

The relationship between Boyd and her elected English Turn neighbors, however, is nothing new. These connections propelled her 2021 victory to the Louisiana House of Representatives, which she used to co-author dozens of bills in her first term. Some of the bills she wrote were attempts to compromise on the extreme right-wing laws pumping out of our statehouse, like adding exceptions for rape and incest into Louisiana’s anti-abortion law. Those attempts were unsuccessful. Other bills were egregious, direct collaborations with the right-wingers. Thanks to co-authors Boyd and Sen. Regina Barrow, a supporter of the aforementioned anti-abortion law, Louisiana is now the first state to allow surgical castration as punishment for sex crimes. With our state’s history of wrongful convictions and mass incarceration, why add this cruel and unusual punishment to our barbaric criminal punishment system?

When all is said and done, Boyd would be another corrupt, pro-cop, conservative Democrat on the Council to mirror Freddie King III. They’re neighbors (for now) who are bought and paid for by the same people—except that Boyd will also owe 100,000 favors to retired oil and gas tycoon and longtime political puppetmaster Laney Chouest. Seems bad.

Matt Hill (R)

What time is it? It’s time to learn about Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Matt Hill. He ran for mayor and got 535 votes, then ran for state legislature and got 142 votes. He raised wolves on the Navajo Reservation and was the “youngest bar owner in the French Quarter.” He wants to dissolve the Sewerage & Water Board. He’s a manager at the local Dave & Buster’s.

City Council At-Large Division 2

Gregory Manning (D) 🌹

New Orleans DSA has endorsed Gregory Manning for City Council At-Large Division 2.

Pastor Gregory Manning is a committed activist, proud New Orleans DSA member, and the pastor of Broadmoor Community Church. He is emphatically progressive on social issues and an ardent champion of economic justice, climate justice, and environmental justice. He founded the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition and helped lead the Community Lighthouse project in New Orleans, which uses distributed solar generation to offer backup power during extended outages. To reduce the city’s climate impact and break Entergy’s energy monopoly, Manning will “municipalize the gas network” and ban the “expansion of gas infrastructure.” He supports the short-term reduction of rates and elimination of customer debts, and the long-term municipalization of Entergy. 

Manning, who is legally blind, has put his body on the line for these principles—in 2019 he was arrested for protesting the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s Cancer Alley petrochemical corridor. With a growing housing crisis in the city, Manning has called for building new, permanently affordable housing on vacant public lands, and is against council exemptions for “wealthy and well-connected” short term rental and Airbnb owners. Manning is a strong voice against the genocide in Gaza, having spoken at the Gulf Coast March for Palestine and derided the City Council’s “Statement of Peace” as a “farce” that denies the horrors of the violence. Manning was endorsed by the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee, despite running against an incumbent.

Pastor Manning has a record of showing up anytime, anywhere, always on the right side of history. He is more than capable of building bridges, but knows when to fight the good fight and won’t back down in the name of doing the easier thing. Time and time again, he has risked his physical safety and professional connections to do the right thing, regardless of personal costs. He will bring that same energy to City Hall, at a time when the people of New Orleans desperately need it, in light of overreach by our fascist state and federal governments.

We wholeheartedly believe Pastor Gregory Manning is the right candidate to confront the urgent challenges bearing down on all of our region’s residents.

Kenneth Cutno (D)

Kenneth Cutno is a perennial candidate, including multiple runs for At-Large Divisions 1 and 2 (in August, his website still included text from a run for Clerk of 2nd City Court). Much of the limited funding for his last election campaign came from tech consulting firm Branae, and he previously received significant funding from spiritual conservative Frank Scurlock (see Mayor, above) and his Noigiler Foundation. Cutno’s most notable policies are a proposal to cap property taxes for those who have lived in their home for 15+ years, and to spend $40 million to reopen Lindy Boggs Medical Center in Mid City. Like other candidates in the race, Cutno wants to restrict short-term rental properties to address the affordability crisis and rejects real-time surveillance. Cutno took no stance on the genocide in Gaza when asked by VOTE. 

JP Morrell (D)

Jean-Paul (JP) Morrell’s father, Authur Morrell, is the former Criminal Court Clerk and his mother, Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, represented District D on the City Council. He started his political career by inheriting his father’s unexpired term at the State House of Representatives in 2006. During his 2006-2020 tenure, he began to cozy up to big business, where he violated campaign finance laws by taking excess contributions from PACs.

Morrell’s ethical fumbles have extended into his time on the Council. He accepted a campaign contribution from AT&T, an entity subject to the same contribution ban that barred contributions from Entergy. His campaign manager, James Baker, is simultaneously serving as his full-time Director of Community Engagement on his City Hall staff. His director of communications, Monet Brignac-Sullivan, has also done extensive work on his campaign through her own business, JazzCat Strategies. Morrell happily welcomed Entergy New Orleans CEO Deanna Rodriguez to his first campaign fundraiser of this cycle, and he’s courted the support of MAGA millionaires like top Trump donor Rick Farrell and Trump campaign co-chair Boysie Bollinger. Morrell’s brother, Todd, pleaded guilty to fabricating NOPD timesheets when he was busy racing cars at the track.

We’ve also just seen Morrell be routinely lazy. He chairs the Utility Committee, which met last December as Morrell spearheaded the sale of Entergy’s gas network to private equity-owned Delta Utilities, and did not meet again until this June. The June Utility Committee meeting came after the massive Memorial Day power outage, and after the start of hurricane season. Morrell put more effort into holding hearings to prepare for Mardi Gras than for hurricane season.

Morrell touts his involvement in getting unanimous juries put on the ballot for public vote while a state senator, an achievement that involved the work of many lawmakers and civic organizations across the state. This highlights a disturbing trend in how he presents his record, often taking personal credit for obviously collective efforts. The same with his role in the Community Lighthouse project, where all he does is distribute funds. It’s great that he was a part of the winning team in these fights, but his personal role just isn’t what he claims.

City Council District A 

Bob Murrell (no party) 🌹

New Orleans DSA has endorsed Bob Murrell for City Council District A.

Bob Murrell is a longtime leader in New Orleans DSA and one of the chief architects of our electoral program. For years, he has worked within grassroots organizations – Voice of the Experienced, Step Up Louisiana, and Eye on Surveillance – to build people power in every neighborhood of our city. Because he shows up and fights for all of us, every single day, he’s won VOTE’s endorsement, as well as that of Step Up for Action, Run for Something, the 3.14 Action Fund to bring STEM leaders to the front of issues from climate change to reproductive healthcare, and local progressive champions Gaby Biro, Devin Davis, and Pearl Ricks.

Murrell has never been afraid to call out the genocide in Palestine, supporting the People’s Ceasefire after Council’s empty “Statement for Peace” failed to even mention Palestine. In 2018, he spoke in favor of Council’s efforts toward a Human Rights Resolution in line with Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions principles, but Council backtracked when the ADL protested that the resolution would challenge the apartheid state’s economic viability. While other candidates silently avoid alienating the wealthy, white, and conservative segment of donors in District A, Murrell has consistently and loudly stood for all residents in opposition to Jeff Landry, Donald Trump, ICE, and encroaching fascism of all kinds. His work with the Eye on Surveillance coalition informs his unwavering support for privacy, safety, and our ability to organize against a surveillance state. “[W]hat happens in Gaza will happen here,” he warns. “The Motorola crime cameras in Black neighborhoods were developed and refined in Gaza and the West Bank. The police tactics used on encampment protestors were developed and trained by Israelis.”

Murrell has been organizing with the Make Entergy Pay campaign to fight back against the monopoly’s utility shutoffs and rate hikes. New Orleanians must replace our profit-driven energy monopoly with a publicly-owned utility, and his commitment to our campaign gives us full confidence that he’ll make municipalizing Entergy one of the next Council’s key tasks. Murrell’s campaign also prioritizes affordable housing, great public schools, good paying union jobs, and better streets and drainage, and he has long spoken about wanting to live in a District A that pays as much attention to its traditionally neglected Black neighborhoods like Hollygrove as it does its white ones like Lakeview.

A powerful organizing force in New Orleans grassroots politics, often found pressuring Council members to prioritize working class interests over those of wealthy political donors, Bob Murrell has the courage, principles, and track record to fight for us. We need public servants who will make New Orleans safer, more fair, and more liveable for everyone. New Orleans DSA fully endorses Bob Murrell for that mission.

Alex Mossing (D)

Alex Mossing is a former lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans and current public middle school social studies teacher. She joined the race because she believes the city’s “biggest challenge is the rate at which we are losing citizens.” She cites failing infrastructure and high costs of living for the exodus, telling the Times-Picayune, “My property taxes have doubled over the last 10 years since we’ve owned our house, but my street still floods.” She lists her campaign priorities as increasing affordable housing, catching up on deferred maintenance to rebuild infrastructure for city services like utilities and trash pickup, funding public schools, and attracting new businesses to the city. 

In a nod to kidnapped Iranian Lakeview resident Mandana Kasha, Mossing says, “our local law enforcement agencies should not be deputized to assist ICE in arresting law-abiding citizens who have been in our community for years.” Her campaign appears largely funded by family and friends. In her VOTE survey, she favored youth programs and non-punitive violence prevention efforts, as well as greater emphasis on mental health responses to 911 calls.

Outside of her district, Mossing supports the harmful Grain Train project in the Lower 9th Ward. As above, we described the Grain Train’s effects on the Holy Cross neighborhood, bringing noise, adding harmful grain dust to the air, eliminating levee access including a portion of the levee trail, and inviting pests and gators to the area.

Aimee McCarron (D)

Until recently, Aimee McCarron served as Councilmember Joe Giarusso’s policy and budget director. As a candidate, her core policy goal is to balance the City’s budget by bringing more city services inside City Hall as opposed to contracting out expensive bids. Like Helena Moreno, she supports hiring city workers to expand city capacity on fixing potholes, streetlights, and traffic signals, citing that there is currently only one electrician employed by City Hall. While we support hiring city workers, we expect this proposal will shift budget priorities from other areas while the city carries a $100 million deficit. We propose taxing the crap out of Uptown mansion owners first.

Since she’s not currently employed by Giarrusso as his budget person, all she can do is say that she trusts him to figure out the current budget fiasco. Who knew that security at the Super Bowl would be so expensive? This is an ideal position to be in as a candidate—getting to lay claim to the positions you want, not having to take responsibility for what you don’t deliver, and teeing up a way to justify future austerity cuts (to housing, not cops). Conveniently, the outgoing council just voted 6-0 in favor of the state legislative auditor to poke around the city’s books, so incoming electeds will get to “scapegoat” Governor Landry when he exerts more control over New Orleans. Good thing McCarron is the kind of person who prides herself on “[working] collaboratively and across political lines to get things done.” Her cred includes an endorsement from Republican State Senate president Cameron Henry who has cosponsored anti-trans legislation.

To that end, McCarron has some Republican money on her side from Richard Farrell, and a good smattering from Gen X developer types like Zach Kupperman. No Brennan-backed PAC money has come through, though, which is sad considering she worked with their family for years. Come on, Ralph, no tip?

UPDATE FROM TEAM MCCARRON: RALPH LEFT A TIP!

Holly Friedman (D)

Enabling the genocide in Palestine is a red line for us. Holly Friedman’s leadership role in the local Anti-Defamation League, which has pushed articles critical of local student demonstrations for Palestine, and her employment at the District Attorney’s office that brought absurd charges against these student protestors—charges that were ultimately tossed out—are major strikes against her. Overpolicing and surveillance ties our city directly to the Israeli surveillance state and its active colonization of Palestinian lands and its genocide of Palestinian people. Her role at the District Attorney’s office supporting the city’s surveillance apparatus, along with City Council’s history of using New Orleanians as test subjects for unverified and unvalidated software, is a dangerous combination for the future of progressive organizing and free speech.

Like McCarron, Friedman worked in Joe Giarusso’s camp as campaign manager and director of constituent services. On policy, you should expect her to adopt much of the current status quo.

Bridget Neal (R)

“I said why don’t you let me go to the city and figure out why we can’t fix—I was having water pressure issues in my boat house—and [Councilmember Giarusso] said, ‘We don’t do that.’ And when he said, ‘We don’t do that,’ I said, ‘You know what? I’m gonna run because we are gonna do that.’”

City Council District C

Jackson Kimbrell (no party) 🌹

New Orleans DSA has endorsed Jackson Kimbrell for City Council District C.

Jackson Kimbrell is a New Orleans DSA member bringing a construction background to his focus on working class issues that affect us all: affordable housing, rising insurance rates, underfunded public transit, expensive childcare, and rising utility bills. He has committed to fiercely regulating Entergy and our Make Entergy Pay demands, putting people over profits.

Much of Kimbrell’s campaign centers on economic and environmental sustainability in the face of global warming, and he has nuts-and-bolts proposals to get things done. At candidate forums and in questionnaires, Kimbrell addresses roof fortification funding and expanding solar retention on all city properties. He’s proposed partnering schools with unions to teach our children trade skills and create more union jobs. He’s proposed investing in our tree canopy to fight the urban heat island effect. Ideas like these that focus on what we can do locally are critically important at a time when federal and state funding sources are drying up.

Around town, Kimbrell has been advocating with Critical Mass NOLA about making roadways work not just for cars and trucks, but for cyclists and pedestrians as well. These measures would protect residents all over District C, particularly in a dangerous St. Claude corridor that has seen several recent deaths.

Out of all the candidates running for the District C seat, he has taken the lead in speaking out against Israeli war crimes in Gaza. He is committed to bringing a proper ceasefire resolution in council, stating that the council’s 2024 “Statement of Peace” was “[a] weak statement to quickly sidestep making a tough stand for human rights.”

Kimbrell is running a campaign funded by small-dollar donations from neighbors and fellow DSA members—not corporations or law firms that put profits first. 

Kelsey Foster (D)

Kelsey Foster is a community advocate and nonprofit leader. For five years, she served as the Executive Director of the Algiers Economic Development Foundation. She holds seats on boards for the Committee for a Better New Orleans, Westbank Business & Industry Association, and Old Algiers Main Street, and she serves as the Vice President of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority – West. She worked with the Committee for a Better New Orleans to develop their Big Easy Budget Game, and covered charter school issues as a reporter for The Lens, New Orleans’s public-interest nonprofit newsroom. Support The Lens.

Throughout the campaign, Foster has hitched most of her platform to finding viable solutions to the city’s housing crisis. Her proposals tout a diversity of tactics to produce housing, invest in affordability, and to hold slumlords accountable. She favors “responsive” adjustments to the city’s zoning ordinances that favor residential and business development, stricter limits on short-term rentals, and more enforcement of the city’s Healthy Homes ordinance that protects renters. She is the only candidate to advocate for funding the city’s Anti-Displacement Fund, which she says is needed “to help people displaced by negligent property owners.”

Foster boasts nearly $40,000 in donations, the largest of which come from her husband’s real estate firm, Property One, Inc., and Xinghong Zhang. Property One is a brokerage firm that focuses primarily on commercial properties. Zhang is a Mississippi-based developer whose play for apartments near English Turn was spurned by Council, resulting in a Federal lawsuit that prevented the city from accessing critical HUD funding (see Freddie King’s entry below). 

Overall, Foster is running a technocratic, stridently liberal campaign. Many of her economic development plans depend on tweaking tax credit programs and reforming existing departments. While not socialist, she is certainly to the left of the incumbent King, and certainly more responsive to the needs of residents. She has committed to limiting facial recognition and has supported non-cooperation with ICE.

Freddie King III (D)

Freddie King III is set up with endorsements from OPDEC, AFL-CIO, and UTNO, and is heavily favored to win re-election in District C to continue serving the owner class. King won his first term with 62% (6,390 votes) in the December 2021 runoff. He is one of the quieter members of City Council, rarely seeking the spotlight but frequently aligning with more conservative Oliver Thomas and Eugene Green on issues like policing and homelessness. King was a co-sponsor of separate measures to expand facial recognition tech in 2022 and to criminalize giving out food in 2023. A landmark achievement for King was to get bike lanes removed in Algiers, while cyclists’ deaths continue to rise throughout the rest of his district.

As housing costs and housing insecurity increase, King has taken malicious positions that actively hurt working class renters and homeowners. During the most recent overhaul of STR regulations that sought to curb Airbnb, King provided a “relief valve” amendment allowing special exemptions for whiny gentrifiers who killed whole blocks of the Tremé. That process ended earlier this year—not because of concerns of abuse, but because it was too onerous for City Planning and Council staff.

Most egregiously, King sabotaged rental development near his English Turn home by sponsoring zoning changes so blatantly discriminatory that Biden’s DOJ filed a statement of interest in the case against the city. That self-serving business prevented the city from applying for over $181 million in HUD grants in 2024. With Trump dismantling federal housing programs, those millions will not return for years—as the city and nation face a growing housing and affordability crisis.

Despite these positions, King still has a stronghold in the Westbank, which itself has become a power center for New Orleans politicians like Troy Carter, Darren Lombard, and Delisha Boyd. His campaign is bought-and-paid for (again) by well-connected real estate law firms, GOP megadonors like Richard Farrell, French Quarter club owners, and several corporate Democrats from around the state. They have combined to raise nearly a quarter-million dollars—an obscene amount for a council seat.

Eliot S. Barron (Green)

Eliot Barron is running as a Green Party candidate with little to no visible support from the party. This is commonplace for the Greens’ electoral efforts, which have seen them decline to holding only a handful of progressive suburban town council seats (17 to be exact).

By contrast, DSA currently holds over 250 elected offices nationwide, and we are likely to see NYC-DSA member Zohran Mamdani become the next socialist mayor of New York City. We enthusiastically invite any Green Party members and sympathizers out there to join DSA to continue to build out eco-socialist campaigns like municipalizing Entergy and building public renewables.

City Council District D

Belden Batiste (D)

After over 20 years of running for local government, Belden “Noonie Man” Batiste may be closer than ever to his first win. Batiste’s last run was in 2021, when he landed a distant fourth-place finish for mayor. Since then, he’s significantly upped his name-recognition by spending the better part of 2022 and 2023 on a campaign to recall Mayor Cantrell. That effort created strange bedfellows between Batiste and GOP donors, notably Richard Farrell, who spent nearly half a million of his own dollars just to fail.

Anyone who has attended a City Council meeting knows that Noonie Man is characteristically combative (see also: dust-up with former Councilmember Jay Banks). Who knows how four spirited years with him on the other side of the dais would shake out?

If Noonie Man has an edge in this race, it’s because of incumbent Eugene Green’s unpopularity on the Council. It’s wild to think that four years ago, out of a field of 13 candidates for Council District D (including some great candidates: Troy Glover, Mariah Moore, Kortney Youngblood), Green and Kevin Griffin-Clark were the only repeat candidates. With Griffin-Clark’s disqualification, Noonie Man may be this year’s most “progressive” choice for District D. He has the endorsement of VOTE. 

Eugene Green (D) 👎

New Orleans DSA recommends AGAINST Eugene Green for City Council District D.

Eugene Green has supported nearly every position that our chapter has rallied against. Most notably, Green is a surveillance and copaganda maximalist, willing to throw aside every civil liberty to empower state and local police. Green introduced the live facial recognition surveillance ordinance with supposed “guardrails” that somehow didn’t exclude use by reality TV producers. Thanks to these efforts, the city has now been secretly monitored by NOPD and LSP since 2023 under an AI-enhanced private network run by Project NOLA. That local surveillance system now threatens immigrants with the mega-MAGA expansion of ICE, and provides avenues for the state to monitor protest activity. 

Frequently, Green combines with Councilmembers King and Thomas to form a fascist Voltron that proposes “solutions” to handle the “homelessness situation” that align with “solutions” of Fox News commentators, Governor Landry, and President Trump. Green tried to bill an ordinance against giving food to unhoused neighbors as a “dumping” ordinance. He supports broad sweeps that clear encampments in an endless cycle of displacement and violence against homeless people. His mistreatment of the poor stems from his years as a professional slumlord himself. Before serving on City Council, he ran a third-rate property management company, Nationwide Real Estate Corp, which has Google reviews stating that they are “literally not professional people.” He recused himself from voting for the 2022 Healthy Homes ordinance and has not proposed any housing solutions in his four years on Council. Yet, he takes credit for co-authoring the Housing Trust Fund that voters approved in 2024.

Green is an old-school, self-aggrandizing, cheap William Jefferson acolyte who ran failed campaign after failed campaign for years before winning a surprise victory to the District D seat in 2021. He is endorsed by OPDEC and nearly a dozen other political organizations who begrudgingly realize that they’ll likely have to deal with him for another four years. As an aside to those organizations: you do not have to endorse a candidate for each race, especially when they suck as much as Eugene Green.

Leilani Heno (no party)

Leilani Heno will create a Community Land Trust (CLT) to address housing, a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to address addiction, a Community Safety Fund (CSF) to address violence, a Summer of Opportunity Initiative (SOI) for youth, a Neighborhood Equity Scorecard (NES) to track city services, Joint Policy Task Forces (JPTF) to co-design plans for high-stakes issues, a Come Home Initiative (CHI) to draw former residents back, a Council Utilities Regulatory Office (CURO) to hold utilities accountable, and Mobile Crisis Response Teams (MCRT) to respond to mental health and substance abuse calls (the city already has Mobile Crisis Intervention Units (MCIU)). These are flagship proposals in a municipal candidacy, which you know because she has capitalized names for each. But she never talks about them in more than one place, and never in her interviews. That’s because they’re just AI slop.

Heno is the owner of the X-Trainers personal fitness business that lost a bunch of money when the city shut down for covid. She then ran for mayor on a platform opposing mask and vaccine mandates. Now she wants your vote. Or at least your business.

City Council District E

Danyelle Christmas (D) 🌹

New Orleans DSA has endorsed Danyelle Christmas for City Council District E.

Dental assistant and single mom of four Danyelle Christmas is a proud member of New Orleans DSA. She has earned the endorsements of Step Up for Action, Voters Organized to Educate, Run for Something, and Lead Locally. Christmas has been leading a campaign that fights for safety, affordable housing, economic justice, and human rights. The daughter of the late Dan Bright, a man wrongfully convicted and sent to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Christmas was inspired to run based on witnessing the unjust impacts of the prison-industrial complex on her family and the wider community. In candidate forums and interviews, Christmas recalls childhood memories of taking the bus to visit her father at Angola, witnessing his activism with Innocence Project New Orleans (now Innocence & Justice Louisiana) once he was released, and dealing with the trauma that resulted from his incarceration. These experiences have solidified her commitment to banning facial recognition technologies in the city, supporting immigrants’ rights and access to legal services, speaking out against the genocide in Gaza, shifting budget priorities towards more youth and community-oriented initiatives, and advocating for policies that are human-centered and recognize the dignity of working class people. 

Christmas has also expressed her frustration with the blight rampant across New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward, where she grew up and went to public school. Christmas spent seven years in Orlando and was dismayed to return home to see streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure the same as when she left, and just the bare foundations of flooded homes as a vestige of Hurricane Katrina. In a Step Up for Action forum, Christmas also brought up her concerns about clean air and water, noting that her children have dealt with more sicknesses here in New Orleans than anywhere else. Christmas has also been active in work for safer streets for bicyclists with Critical Mass Nola and has pushed against disruptive industrial activity with the proposed Sunrise Foods International Grain Terminal in the Lower Ninth Ward/Holy Cross neighborhood. She has pointed to the lack of investment in people and the neighborhoods of District E as a major public safety issue.

Pushing out corporate greed, pushing for city-owned utilities that offer more transparency and an end to unjust fees, and pushing for a city cap on rental costs are additional measures that Christmas is advocating for to make New Orleans a city that is affordable for everyone and would allow people to stay and thrive. She wrote in her VOTE questionnaire: “New Orleans residents are [either] choosing between paying Entergy, rent, or food to feed families,” and she feels that it shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be that way for people in the city who are working 40+ hours a week and still not making the income needed to survive. Ultimately, Christmas argues that everyday working people in District E and New Orleans are tired of the lack of adequate services and deserve representation by someone who understands their experiences. As she remarked in a recent news interview with The Boston Globe, ”What I’m fighting for, I’ve lived it.”

Cyndi Nguyen (D)

Cyndi Nguyen (D) represented District E on the City Council from 2018-2022, losing to incumbent Oliver Thomas in her reelection bid. In her first term, Nguyen was among city council members to reject tax breaks for Folgers, but supported exemptions for the Iriapak plastic packaging factory, estimated to take $435,634 from the city over five years. In her re-election bid, residents cited concerns that Nguyen’s vision for redeveloping areas of New Orleans East, such as Lincoln Beach, did not align with their priorities. Nguyen then worked as a community outreach advisor for RTA. Now, she touts her background in “community development and nonprofit leadership” and emphasizes “finishing” the work from her first term.

Meanwhile, energy costs are skyrocketing across the country and in New Orleans. To combat the climate crisis, she supports community solar power and “exploring public ownership—or municipalization—of Entergy,” but received criticism during her first election for not acknowledging donations to her non-profit, VIET, $27,625 from Entergy, including $6,625 as part of Entergy’s campaign to buy support for a new power plant. To Verite, she cited “the intersection of public safety and economic instability” as the most important issue facing New Orleans. During her first term, Nguyen supported expanding surveillance infrastructure; this year, she joined the call for stricter regulations. Nguyen stopped short of calling the war on Gaza a genocide, but supports “a City Council resolution that explicitly condemns violence against Palestinian civilians and demands an end to U.S. military aid that fuels the conflict.” Nguyen supports zoning reform, limits to AirBnBs, and new housing construction, but has not committed to rent control or similar policies advocated by candidates such as Danyelle Christmas.

Willie Morgan (D)

Willie Morgan is dean of students at The Net Charter High School: East. He has a degree in addiction counseling and spent time running alternatives to incarceration programs at Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. Although he lists many named housing proposals in his VOTE survey (The “Stay Home NOLA” Plan, a Legacy Homeowner Tax Stabilization Program, an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, a Community Land Trust Expansion, an Heir Property & Title Assistance Program, and a Developer Accountability Fund), he denies ever proposing them in his VOTE interview. We think this is a clear sign this educator used large language model software to write some of his survey answers for him.

In these written responses, he says he opposes surveillance tech expansion because, “these tools have historically been used to target Black communities disproportionately, deepen systemic racial bias, and erode trust between law enforcement and residents.” For youth, he writes about increasing funding for after-school activities and workforce development. His big policy change would be revising zoning laws in the Lower Ninth Ward to attract small businesses. Additionally, Morgan recognizes the efforts of grassroots organizations “offering harm reduction, recovery housing, syringe exchange, and mobile outreach with little to no city support,” and pledges to support their efforts.

It’s hard to give you a full sense of a candidate who has valuable work experience and endorses points you like, but who then gives you reason to doubt their word. Which is why schools teach you about integrity, accountability, and showing your work.

Rev. Richard Bell Sr. (D)

Rev. Richard Bell Sr. has been chairperson of A Community Voice, fighting against the Industrial Canal expansion, advocating for more grocery and department stores in the Lower 9 and calling attention to lead levels in the neighborhood. He retired from the Army National Guard and from Avondale Shipyard, where he was a personnel and clearance manager for ships entering the U.S. He has also been involved with the American Legion, Justice and Beyond, and Sankofa. His present campaign is self-funded.

At the Step Up for Action forum, Rev. Bell supported investing city money into job skills programs for teenagers. His survey responses, however, are light on details. What is your plan to expand and support year-round, community-led public safety initiatives? “We need to protect the youth and develop program to help keep them out of trouble. I will show the plan if I’m elected.”

This is a pattern throughout his campaign. When asked what city services he’ll fix, he responds, “Sewerage & Water Board. Plan will be discussed if elected to office. Entergy.” What legislative actions will you champion to ensure housing justice? “I prefer to answer this question if I’m elect[ed].” Will you make a commitment to create similar summer 2026 programming available to New Orleans’ youth as what has been in Baltimore? “I will develop a plan if I’m elected.” Do you oppose the expansion of surveillance technologies?: “Yes…. We need surveillance to catch the thief.” Will you defend New Orleans’ sanctuary city practices by opposing local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement?: “Yes…. If they are Legal no worries.” Would you support a City Council resolution that explicitly condemns the ongoing violence against Palestinian civilians?: “Yes…. We need to protect all people[‘s] right[s].”

Kimberly Burbank (D)

Kimberly Burbank is a real estate developer at Palesa Community Development Corporation. Earlier this year, Burbank coordinated an effort with other business owners to designate Lake Forest Blvd a state cultural district to businesses eligible for grants from the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development. This comes as Franklin Avenue Baptist Church moves to the East, and Lincoln Beach and the former Six Flags site allegedly move closer to development. The developer favors deregulation, saying it “increases investment and enhances the marketability of vacant, underutilized properties—a strategy we intend to use to build the community we deserve.” She envisions a Future Land Use Map for the East with “single-family, duplex, four-plex, multi-family, commercial, and mixed-use options,” to attract young adults and families. In 2020, Burbank ran for OPDEC, finishing just out of the top 14 elected positions in a field of 40 candidates.

Jason Hughes (D)

PR consultant Jason Hughes has been the state representative for District 100 since 2019, after being disqualified in 2015 for failing to file his tax returns. During his time in the legislature, Hughes has served as Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, House Democratic Caucus Whip, and Chair of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. He has sponsored bills that have streamlined the process to deal with blight and abandoned properties, improved emergency coordination in Orleans Parish, established oversight and accountability of public housing through Housing Authority of New Orleans, tax credits for hiring young workers and apprentices, provided emergency contraception for sexual assault victims, and expanded tutoring program services for students for foundational subjects. When Jeff Landry’s administration turned down summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program funds for food for children, Hughes wrote a proposal to require the state to accept federal food assistance. In 2024, Hughes received criticism for being one of the few Democrats in Louisiana who voted for Jeff Landry’s school choice bill (HB 475), a bill that led to the creation of the LA GATOR Scholarship Program which allows families to siphon public funds for private school tuition.

In his Verite News questionnaire, Hughes, who served in senior positions for Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, cites the “depth and breadth” of his experience, such as appropriating money for parks and recreation and the New Orleans East Hospital. A review of the VOTE questionnaire reflects that Hughes emphasizes proper and continued investment in NORD, opposes the expansion of and abuse of surveillance technologies like facial recognition, and supports New Orleans’s sanctuary city status, but opposes municipalization of our electric utilities and opposes a Council resolution condemning the violence against Palestinians while saying he favors a ceasefire.

Hughes is currently leading the District E field in donations with over $58,000 raised and has picked up endorsements from the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, UTNO, and the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee (OPDEC).

Nathaniel Jones (no party)

Nathaniel Jones is an Uber driver and part-time teacher. Ballotpedia asks: What is your favorite joke? “None.”

Gavin Richard (no party)

Gavin Richard is a lawyer and the author of the self-published Katrina: Eyes Have Not Seen, Ears Have Not Heard, about federal abandonment of New Orleans after the storm, the challenges of survival, and the racism that residents endured as they struggled to rebuild their lives. Richard’s civic and community connections include 100 Black Men of Metro New Orleans, the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, and the Peacemakers, which helps mitigate neighborhood conflict. His website states that his campaign is rooted in common sense, integrity, and action.

Jonathan Anthony Roberts (no party)

Marine veteran Jonathan Roberts says he’ll bring participatory budgeting to City Hall, a process where community members decide how to spend the city’s budget. We like that. Roberts cites his experience with National Black Men Build and his dedication to “mentoring young people, supporting families, and standing alongside neighbors through public education, community outreach, and grassroots engagement” as qualifications for office. 

His written work, however, carries many of the indications of AI assistance we talked about in our header: “I’ve worked in schools…— not from behind a desk.” “I’m not running as a politician — I’m running as a neighbor.” “Our campaign is supported by everyday people —… not status.” “That means putting resources where they matter most — …not just contracts.” “New Orleanians deserve cooperation that delivers — not power struggles.” “Our people expect us to show up for them — not just in words.” “I will prioritize policies that preserve existing affordable housing…— not just market-rate growth.” “Our campaign is committed to making housing a right — not a hustle.” “If I could change one thing in the city’s zoning code, it would be to expand inclusionary zoning requirements across more neighborhoods—not just the areas with the most development activity.” It’s a shame because Roberts endorses good points and is compelling in front of the camera. We just can’t tell you which of these statements he really believes. Roberts’s financial backers appear to be connections from military communities around the country.

Parishwide Home Rule Charter Amendment – Amends Article II, Section 2-202(6) – CC 🌹

New Orleans DSA recommends voting YES on the Home Rule Charter Amendment.

Shall Article II, Section 2-202(6) of the Home Rule Charter of the City of New Orleans be amended to provide that no law shall arbitrarily and unreasonably discriminate against a person based on conviction history?

Our city has a Bill of Rights prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, disability, and gender. It’s time to add criminal conviction history to that list, because the criminal legal system shouldn’t block people from housing, jobs, and a path to getting back on their feet. This update, called the Fair Chance Amendment, is presented by VOTE, a frequent partner organization of ours composed of people who have experienced the criminal legal system.

Jefferson Parish

Mayor of Lafitte

Yvette Crain (R) & Wilfred Wyman (D)

The race for mayor of Lafitte, a fishing town of 1,000, is the only one that will appear on Jefferson Parish’s ballot. Although it will only impact voters in one out of JP’s 271 voting precincts, we should pay attention to what’s happening in Lafitte as an example of what will continue to happen to our coastal communities in the wake of flooding and increasingly destructive storms. 

Lafitte has been governed by the Kerner dynasty for the past five decades: Leo Kerner Jr., Timothy Kerner Sr. (now a state legislator), and most recently, Timothy Kerner Jr. This is a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Timothy Jr. after he won a special election in May for the District 1 seat on the Jefferson Parish Council. This will mark the first time that a Lafitte mayor isn’t a Kerner. It will also be only “the fourth time in Jean Lafitte’s history that the mayor’s race has had more than one candidate.”

The two candidates vying for the spot are Republican Yvette Crain, the town clerk for the past 35 years and current interim mayor, and Democrat Wilfred Wyman, a local firefighter with 25 years of experience. Crain’s time as town clerk has been under each of the Kerner administrations, and she wants to apply what she has learned working with them to address Hurricane Ida repairs. Lafitte previously had a rule that the interim mayor could not run for the position of mayor, but this was recently changed at the town council meeting where Crain was appointed. Crain has been endorsed by the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, Republican Women of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Republican Party. Wyman, who has been endorsed by the Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee, is more of an outsider to the political scene in Lafitte. He expresses deep concern about transparency and timelines with Hurricane Ida repairs, and with seeing long-time Lafitte residents sell their homes and move away from the community.

St. Tammany Parish

Mayor of Slidell

Bill Borchert (R) & Randy Fandal (R)

In one ignominious corner is the incumbent Bill Borchert, who took over as interim mayor after his predecessor Gregory Cromer jumped to Baton Rouge with the Landry administration. Prior to his mayorship, Borchert served on the Slidell City Council for 17 years. He is big on “economic redevelopment” and in trying to attract businesses to Slidell, such as via the Slidell Waterfront Economic Development.

In the opposite–and possibly more contemptible–corner is current Chief of Police Randy Fandal. His website has no details about any official platform or policies, while his ads mention infrastructure, blight, and trumpeting his years cracking heads as a cop. In recent days, Fandal has boosted the new St. Tammany Parish chapter of Club America, a high school-focused wing of far-right Turning Point USA, even giving a speech at their kickoff event.

Borchert, while a far cry from one of the “sewer socialists” of yore, at least has a platform page on his website and does make infrastructure promises even if the focus is #BillMeansBusiness. From his FAQ he is aware of the issue of rising homeowner’s insurance and flood insurance premiums. Fandal seems to be more about his record as a cop and simply attacking his opponent–details are nonexistent. While on some level we do appreciate that he does not force us to endure even a ChatGPT written platform, it does make his campaign hard to take seriously.

Endorsements vs. Recommendations

An endorsement represents a direct material investment from our membership for a candidate, including volunteers and securing the support of National DSA when applicable. Our endorsement requires the candidate to be a member of our chapter. The process is initiated with a resolution signed on by at least 1% of our membership in good standing at a general membership meeting. The candidate will attend a Q&A interview curated by members, and requires a majority vote with 25% quorum from our membership after chapter-wide debate. Our chapter has endorsed candidates under this endorsement process for US Congress, School Board, State House, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, City Council, and Democratic State Central Committee. 

National DSA endorsements are initiated by the chapter and require a local endorsement, a review from the DSA National Electoral Commission, and approval by the National Political Committee, DSA’s national leadership body. Devin Davis and Margee Green have received national endorsements in the past. 

In contrast, a recommendation can be initiated by any member by presenting a recommendation resolution at one of our monthly general meetings. These recommendations require the consent of a majority of members in a quorate meeting with at least 10% of membership in good standing. Recommendations will be made explicit in voter guides, but do not devote member time and resources to a given campaign as a chapter priority like an endorsement does. A lack of recommendation in a given race should not be interpreted as condemnation or praise of any particular candidate(s).

This guide is written and researched by members working with the New Orleans DSA’s Voter Guide Working Group and is approved by elected chapter leadership. We hope you’ve enjoyed your time with us. Join our team and help us build a better future.