Three first-time candidates are competing to represent part of Baton Rouge in the Louisiana House after Larry Selders won election to the state Senate, leaving behind his seat earlier this year.
Terry Landry Jr., Sonny Marchbanks and Malcolm Myer, all Democrats, are running in the special election set for May 3. Early voting kicks off Saturday.
Whoever wins will represent House District 67, an area that covers Gardere and Riverbend in the south, the LSU campus and Old South Baton Rouge, as well as Mid City and North Baton Rouge.
Some Baton Rouge ballots will also include local runoff races, like two for St. George City Council, and propositions such as a parishwide property tax levy for the District Attorney’s Office.
Early voting runs through April 26, excluding Sunday.
While this is the first time each of the three candidates is seeking elected office, all have some past experience in politics, and two have significant experience working in Louisiana state government.
The three campaigns highlight similar priorities — education, public safety — but the candidates’ backgrounds and philosophies are unique. Here is who’s running.
Candidates
Terry Landry Jr., 44, has a bachelor’s degree from LSU, a law degree from Southern University Law Center and a master’s degree in public administration from Southern University.
Landry’s father, Terry C. Landry Sr., was Louisiana State Police superintendent for four years and served as a member of the Louisiana House for two terms.
For the past several years, Landry Jr. has been Louisiana policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, work that has focused on ensuring civil rights and social justice.
Before that, he worked as a legislative liaison for the Department of Children and Family Services, a program director at the Louisiana Department of Health and a legislative liaison and associate general counsel for Acadian Ambulance.
All of those roles involved work at the State Capitol, Landry said. And now after 16 years, “the time is now to have our voice heard from the inside.”
“The most important issue for me is children,” he said of his campaign.
Introducing legislation to “fully fund childhood education” is the first thing Landry wants to focus on. “It’s a bipartisan issue, and I don’t think anyone in this state is against having better schools and better education for our children.”
Improving public safety is also important, Landry said. But efforts to reduce crime rates should be based on “data-driven results” that have been successful in other places.
Sonny Marchbanks, 47, has an undergraduate degree from Southeastern Louisiana University and a graduate degree from LSU, both in political science.
A Texas native, he moved to Louisiana in 2006 to help family after Hurricane Katrina and worked for several years as a waiter during that time.
He worked for John Delgado during his 2016 campaign for mayor-president of East Baton Rouge Parish and then for eight years at Delgado’s law office. Now he is a construction project manager at SNA Contracting.
Marchbanks said he was encouraged to run by a friend when it became clear that Selders’ House seat could soon become vacant.
“Our politics have become too toxic,” said Marchbanks, adding that there aren’t enough politicians who have lived or care about the day-to-day experiences of working-class people.
Of Marchbanks’ four major policy priorities — education, environment, public safety and the economy — he said education is at the top of the list, including universal pre-K.
“Education is an investment in our future economy,” he said. “We plant trees that we will not sit under.”
Malcolm Myer, 58, studied political science and has a bachelor’s degree from LSU.
Since the 1990s, Myer has held a wide range of positions in state government.
He worked as a legislative liaison and confidential assistant to the secretary of the health department and then as a confidential assistant to the head of what was then the Department of Social Services.
He was an assistant commissioner at the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and worked on legislative affairs for the Louisiana attorney general's office.
He also worked for former U.S. Sen. John Breaux from 1999 to 2005. Under former Gov. John Bel Edwards from 2016 to 2024, he served as deputy secretary for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
Myer said his experience will allow him to “hit the ground running day one.”
“I’ve always been a public servant and believe in giving back,” he said. “Living and working in District 67 for 30 years has given me the opportunity to see firsthand and learn the issues impacting our community.”
Of all the issues facing Baton Rouge, Myer said “we’ve got to have safer streets and we’ve got to reduce the amount of crime we have.”
Supporting small businesses as “the backbone” of the economy and ensuring teachers earn a fair wage are also priorities for Myer.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled the last name of candidate Malcolm Myer in several cases. His last name is Myer, not Myers.