New Orleans has elected its first female mayor, LaToya Cantrell. The 45-year-old is the city’s first female mayor in its 300-year-old history.
Not a New Orleans native, Cantrell replaces Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the son of a former mayor. She was born in Los Angeles and raised by a social worker mother and a law enforcement employed stepfather who left the family after a drug addiction.
A grandmother took her in after Cantrell's mother couldn’t take care of her. She arrived in New Orleans in 1990 and attended Xavier University of Louisiana.
Cantrell first got involved in politics while helping her neighbourhood recover from Hurricane Katrina. The city wanted to raze her predominantly Black neighborhood, and replace it with a park. She fought against it, organising protests
Cantrell was elected to the City Council in 2012 where she ended smoking in city bars and casinos. She had worked in a hotel’s laundry room and front desk where she interacted with workers in the hospitality business. She was thinking about how this workforce is susceptible to second hand smoke.
During her election campaign, she was slammed for charging $9,000 in personal and political expenses to a city credit card.
"We deserve better and together we truly will be better.This victory is not about LaToya Cantrell, this campaign did not start about self. It only started with and has been rooted in the people of the city of New Orleans," said Cantrell.
Cantrell campaigned on fighting crime, increasing affordable housing and moving city offices into struggling neighborhoods. New Orleans is hopeful she will deliver on her promises
She faced the second-place vote-getter, Desiree Charbonnet, a former city judge and Democrat in the run up to the election.
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