Samuel Jenkins Jr.

Samuel Lee Jenkins Jr. (born February 1956), known as Sam Jenkins,^[1] is an African-American Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 2 in Caddo and Bossier parishes in northwestern Louisiana. Jenkins succeeded Roy A. Burrell, who was term-limited in the primary election held on October 24, 2015.^[2][3]

Political campaigns

In the fall of 1994, Jenkins and Burrell ran against each other for the District G seat on the Shreveport City Council. Burrell won that race with 3,659 votes (61.8 percent), compared to Jenkins' 2,263 (38.2 percent).^[4]

In 2014, Burrell announced on KEEL radio in Shreveport that he would run for mayor of Shreveport to succeed the term-limited African-American Cedric Glover. However, Burrell soon withdrew on the grounds that a prior commitment to his friend, former Mayor Keith Hightower, made it impossible for him to run. Then Hightower, the mayor from 1998 to 2006, decided not to seek a comeback in the office.^[5] Jenkins and Patrick C. Williams, one of Burrell's legislative colleagues, were among several candidates who ran unsuccessfully for mayor. Victory went instead to still another African-American candidate, the retired educator Ollie Tyler. Glover, meanwhile, returned in January 2016 to the state House in the District 4 seat which he formerly held. That position was vacated by Representative Patrick Williams.^[6]

In the 2015 primary, Jenkins defeated fellow Democrat Terence Vinson for the right to succeed Representative Burrell. Jenkins polled 3,505 votes (60.6 percent) to Vinson's 2,282 (39.4 percent).^[6]

Burrell himself won the District 5 seat on the Caddo Parish Commission in that same election without opposition.^[7]

References