(The Center Square) – The Republican Party of Louisiana is backing state Sen. Alan Seabaugh in the district attorney race while also weighing in on several lower-ballot races in Caddo Parish.
The party's 2026 midterm endorsement list includes Seabaugh for district attorney of the 1st Judicial District, along with Matt Shields for Caddo Parish School Board District 4, Katie McLain for District 10 and Laura Neubert for Blanchard alderman.
Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, is challenging incumbent District Attorney James Stewart Sr., a Democrat. Lauren Ray Anderson, a Libertarian, and Patricia Gilley, who has no party affiliation, also qualified for the Nov. 3 election.
The Center Square previously reported Seabaugh has made the pace of prosecutions and public safety central to his campaign, arguing that cases need to move through Caddo Parish's criminal justice system more quickly.
Seabaugh told The Center Square in August he believes a backlog of criminal cases can be reduced through more aggressive prosecution and faster case resolution.
“We have to be willing to try cases,” Seabaugh said. “We have to be willing to move cases. We have to be willing to make decisions.”
Stewart has defended the work of his office and previously told The Center Square that cases are entering the criminal justice system faster than courts can resolve them. He has pointed to staffing and funding limitations as contributors to the backlog.
“Cases are coming in faster than they can be disposed of,” Stewart said, adding that the district attorney’s office is working with limited resources to handle the volume.
Statistics provided by Stewart's office showed law enforcement referred 13,557 criminal charges to prosecutors last year and the office filed 11,835, an 87% filing rate. The Center Square was unable to independently verify those figures.
Stewart was elected district attorney in 2015 and reelected in 2021. Seabaugh spent 13 years in the Louisiana House of Representatives before winning election to the state Senate in 2023.
The state Republican Party is also getting involved down the Caddo ballot.
In Caddo Parish School Board District 4, the party endorsed Shields, a Republican, who faces Susannah Poljak, who qualified with no party affiliation.
Shields, an Air Force veteran, says his priorities include improving reading, math and science outcomes, increasing parental involvement and directing more education funding toward classrooms and teachers.
In District 10, the Republican Party endorsed McLain, the Republican candidate in a two-person race against Democrat Michael Lafitte. McLain currently serves on the Caddo Parish School Board.
The party also endorsed Laura Neubert for alderman in Blanchard.
Notably absent from the endorsement list is the Blanchard mayor's race.
Incumbent Mayor Jim Galambos and former Caddo Parish School Board member Steve Umling are competing for the position after a third candidate, Donald Nowatzke, was ruled ineligible because of residency requirements and withdrew from the race.
Both Galambos and Umling are Republicans, but neither is listed among the state party's 2026 endorsements.
Galambos has served as Blanchard mayor since 2016 after previously serving as an alderman. Umling previously served on the Caddo Parish School Board.
The Shreveport mayor's race is also absent from the Louisiana Republican Party's endorsement list. Republican incumbent Mayor Tom Arceneaux is seeking a second term in a seven-candidate field that also includes state Rep. Tammy Phelps, Caddo commissioners Stormy Gage-Watts and John-Paul Young, former Caddo Commissioner Michael Williams, Chaunta Mero and Sia Ravari. The state party did not list an endorsement for any candidate in the race.