Mayor re-elected, one seat will be decided in runoff
Two new members will join two incumbent members of the St. Martinville City Council and incumbent Mayor Jason Willis after Saturday’s primary election day voting.
One council seat will be decided in a runoff scheduled for June 27, with closed party primary elections set the same day for Democrat and Republican party voters for U.S. Senate races.
Voter turnout varied by council district but the unofficial turnout in voting for mayor, the only citywide item on the ballot, was 53.9 percent. Voter turnout for District 1 councilman was 44.3 percent. For councilman in District 3, turnout was 39.5 percent. In District 4, turnout was 40.8 percent.
George Choplin ran unopposed in District 2 and incumbent Flo Chatman was unopposed in District 5.
Willis, a Democrat, was re-elected with 1,068 votes, or 66 percent of the 1,629 votes cast.
Former Mayor Melinda Narcisse “Mel” Mitchell, a Democrat, was second with 292 votes or 17.93 percent of the ballots cast.
Lisa Nelson, also a Democrat and the daughter of former Mayor Thomas Nelson, received 257 votes, or 15.78 percent of the votes cast.
Mark Pratt, registered with no party, received 12 votes or 0.74 percent of votes cast.
Republican Brad Horton netted 234 votes, or 68.02 percent of votes cast, to win the District 1 council seat.
Republican Marty Theriot had 110 votes, or 31.98 percent of votes.
Democrat Jonas Fontenette was re-elected to the District 3 seat with 246 votes, or 77.36 percent of votes cast.
Challenger Patrick Wiltz, a Democrat, had 72 votes, or 22.64 percent of the vote.
District 4 will see a runoff between Democrat incumbent Janise Anthony, who captured 92 votes, or 28.57 percent of the votes cast, and challenger Monica Charles, also a Democrat, who led the voting with 148 votes, or 46.96 percent of votes cast.
Democrat Harold “Cat” Pickney had 82 votes, or 25.47 percent of the vote, in the election for District 4 Councilman.
Incumbents Mike Fuselier in District 1 and Carol Frederick in District 2 chose not to run for reelection in 2026.
Parish results mirrored statewide results in voting for U.S. Senate candidates in the closed primary, and in voting against all five amendments to the Louisiana Constitution.
The Democrat Primary for U.S. Senator will see a runoff between “Jamie” Davis and Gary Crockett.
Davis received 1,455 votes, or 46.59 percent of votes, in St. Martin Parish. He also topped Democrat Primary candidates statewide with 163,507 votes (47 percent).
Council
Crockett had 869 votes in St. Martin Parish (27.51 percent) and 90,674 votes statewide (26 percent).
Nicholas “Nick” Albares finished third in the parish Democrat Primary with 809 votes (25.9 percent) and third statewide with 90,480 votes (26 percent).
A total of 344,751 votes were cast for Democrat candidates for Senate statewide.
In the Republican Primary for Senate, John Fleming and Julia Letlow will be in the runoff in June.
Letlow garnered 48.19 percent of the vote in St. Martin Parish (2,336 votes) and 45 percent statewide (179,876 votes).
Fleming had 35.18 percent of the vote in the parish (1,705 votes) and 28 percent (113,428) statewide.
Incumbent “Bill” Cassidy netted 712 votes in St. Martin Parish (14.69 percent) and 25 percent statewide (99,479 votes).
Mark Spencer had 94 votes as a Republican candidate for Senate in St. Martin Parish (1.9 percent) and 8,335 votes statewide (2 percent).
A total of 401,118 ballots were cast statewide in the Republican Party Primary for U.S. Senate.
Statewide voter turnout will not be available for U.S. Senate races until election results are official, according to a statement from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office.
All five Constitutional Amendments failed statewide and in St. Martin Parish. Statewide voter turnout on the amendments ranged from 27.0 percent to 27.3 percent.
Amendment 1 (to authorize the addition or removal of positions in the unclassified state civil service by law) failed by a 7822 percent margin statewide with 630,337 votes against and 173,587 votes for. In St. Martin Parish, 6,353 voted no (74.43 percent) and 2,182 (25.57 percent) voted yes.
Amendment 2 (to grant St. George community school system the authority to operate a school system) failed by a 64-36 margin. Statewide, 511,787 voted no and 287,614 voted yes. In St. Martin Parish, 5,248 (61.82 percent) voted no and 3,241 (38.18 percent) voted yes.
Amendment 3 (to fund a teacher pay raise by paying down debt of the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana) failed by a 58-42 margin. Statewide, 470,837 voted no and 340,362 voted yes. In St. Martin Parish, 4,692 (54.46 percent) voted no and 3,924 (45.54 percent) voted yes.
Amendment 4 (to provide authority for a parish to classify and authorize exemptions relative to ad valorem taxes) failed by a 66-34 margin. Statewide, voters 530,739 voted no and 272,515 voted yes. In St. Martin Parish, 4,868 (57.12 percent) voted no and 3,655 (42.88 percent voted yes.
Amendment 5 (to change the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 75 years of age) failed by a 77-23 margin. Statewide, 618,097 voted no and 188,765 voted yes. In St. Martin Parish, 6,395 (74.73 percent) voted no and 2,162 (25.27 percent) voted yes.
In St. Martin Parish, 35,238 registered voters qualified to vote in the election, including 13,776 Republicans (39.1 percent of voters), 12,577 Democrats (35.7 percent), 8,706 No Party voters (24.7 percent) and 179 Other Party voters (0.5 percent).
