Voters in Baton Rouge and Lafayette chose new members of the Louisiana Senate in a special election Saturday, elevating current members of the state House of Representatives to both open seats.
Rep. Larry Selders of Baton Rouge won outright in the race to fill the vacancy in Senate District 14 created when Cleo Fields won November’s election for the 6th Congressional District. Selders, a first-term state lawmaker, avoided a runoff against fellow Democrats Quentin Anthony Anderson, a community advocate and nonprofit leader, and school system social worker Carolyn Hill.
Selders is also a social worker and was a member of the Recreation and Park Commission for East Baton Rouge Parish (BREC) before joining the Legislature in 2021.
In Senate District 23, state Rep. Brach Myers of Lafayette won a head-to-head battle with fellow Republican Jesse Regan, a Lafayette Parish councilman and business owner.
Myers, who took his House seat in January 2024, is part of the family that founded the home health company LHC Group, which sold for $5.4 billion to UnitedHealth in February 2024. He will fill the seat Jean-Paul Coussan left open when he won election to the Louisiana Public Service Commission last year.
The Louisiana Secretary of State will not declare official winners until Monday.