Jeff Hall (politician)

Jeffrey W. Hall, known as Jeff Hall (born December 26, 1951),[1] is an American accountant who is the mayor of Alexandria, Louisiana. He is the first member of his race to serve in the position. On taking office on December 4, 2018, he stepped down as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 26 in Rapides Parish, a position which he assumed in 2015.[2]

Hall is a graduate of the historically black Grambling State University[2] in Grambling in Lincoln Parish. He has formerly resided in Pineville, Opelousas, and Mansfield, Louisiana, and Amarillo, Texas.[3] Hall's place of birth, high school, religion, and names of his parents, spouse, and children are unavailable.

Hall won a special election to the House on February 21, 2015, with 84 percent of the vote. His two intra-party rivals, Alice "Red" Hammond and Daniel Williams, held the remaining 16 percent of the ballots cast in a low-turnout contest.[4] The position opened when the African-American Democrat, Herbert Dixon, resigned because of health issues. On November 4, 2014, Hall had placed second with just over a third of the vote in the nonpartisan blanket primary to unseat Mayor Jacques Roy of Alexandria, who instead won a majority for his third term in office.[1]

Hall stressed economic development, jobs, and resolving the $1 billion state budget shortfall as the principal issues he would face as state representative.[1]

In 2018, Representative Hall announced that he would again run for mayor. In his statement of candidacy, Hall vowed to run on "a pro-business, pro-people platform that brings jobs back, grows existing businesses, and makes city government something that actually works. Do you think the city is better today than it was eleven years ago?"[5] Mayor Jacques Roy, first elected in 2006, chose not seek a fourth term in the November 6 primary.[6]

Hall defeated two white Democratic women attorneys in the mayoral race: Catherine Louise Davidson (born August 12, 1968), who had eighteen years of litigation in private civil practice, four years as the Alexandria assistant city attorney, and three years as an assistant district attorney, and Kay H. Michiels (born c. 1955), a former educator who formerly served as chief of staff and director of planning for Mayor Jacques Roy.[7] Hall won the mayoral election with 7,842 votes (53 percent); Michiels trailed with 5,402 (36 percent), and Davidson held the remaining 1,679 votes (11 percent). Turnout was just under 50 percent of registered voters.[8]