East Baton Rouge Parish elected its first African-American woman mayor.
Sharon Weston Broome (D-La.) made history when she beat her opponent, Mack “Bodi” White (R-La.), in a close race with 52 percent of the vote, Huffington Post reports.
Broome, 60, will succeed fellow democrat Kil Holden, who served 12 years as the city’s first Black mayor.
“Tonight Baton Rouge made a statement, a statement that we are a city of inclusion,” Broome said in her acceptance speech. “That we are a place of hope and optimism. A place where little boys and little girls of all walks of life know that they can grow up and lead a city no matter what their color or gender.”
Broome, who previously served as state representative and state senator, ran a campaign focused on healing and unifying the city. She also highlighted the need to invest in education, healthcare, low-income communities and criminal justice reform.
“Being unified is not only part of a vision for our future, it’s the backbone of the process that takes us there,” she said. “We will work for the next four years to make our city an example of how to heal and progress past the hurt that we have seen.”
