INCUMBENT: Greg Tarver (Democrat)

DESCRIPTION: Senate District 39 is located in Caddo Parish, and includes both its northern portions and most of the city of Shreveport. From a landmass perspective, it appears to be a rural district, although a closer inspection reveals that most of its votes are cast in inner city precincts in Shreveport roughly between I-49 and the Inner Loop.

DISTRICT MAP:

District Map

RED/BLUE RATING (using 2008, 2012, and 2014 elections): 73% Democratic

JMCEL’s SUMMARY: Senate District 39 is a district whose political tone is set by the black majority precicnts in Shreveport (69% of the registered voters are black), although there is a Republican voter base in the suburbs north of Cross Lake and in the rural stretches of the district where I-49 recently opened up. This is a senate district that has had stable representation: only two senators have represented it ever since it was drawn in 1981 to be majority black. After that reconfigutation, Greg Tarver in 1983 defeated a white incumbent and became the first black senator from Shreveport. When he retired in 2003, state representative Lydia Jackson succeeded him, and was unopposed in 2007. However, in 2011, Senator Tarver wanted his old seat back, and defeated her in the runoff 53-47%. This was the one time that the white vote made a difference, as Tarver got 51% of the black vote and 64% of the white vote. He is allowed to serve two more terms, and given the fact that he was re-elected fairly easily in the past, he shouldn’t have re-election problems.