The race for Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat is on.
Of the five Democratic candidates on the ballot, only one has been able to snag endorsements from the Louisiana Democratic Party, Gov. John Bel Edwards, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, Former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives Stacy Abrams, V.P. Nominee Kamala
Harris and countless other leaders and organizations including none other than the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.
That candidate is 34-year-old Adrian Perkins, the current mayor of Shreveport, whose experience and ideas represent a bright future for this state.
Grandson of a sharecropper, Perkins was born and raised in Shreveport. Following the 9/11 attacks, Perkins was inspired to join the U.S. Army.
Perkins had a very successful military career, during which he served eight years and eventually received a Bronze Star. Being in the military was not enough for Perkins, however, as he later attended Harvard Law School, where he served as the President of the Student Government.
With accolades like these, Perkins would have no trouble finding job offers. In fact, he received offers from some of the top law firms in the country; but after traveling the world, he instead decided to return to his hometown of Shreveport and run for mayor.
In 2018, Perkins became the 58th mayor of Shreveport after defeating the incumbent in a runoff. During his first year as mayor, he turned a $1 million deficit into a nearly $3 million surplus. Crime in Shreveport reached its lowest rate since 1975, and homicides decreased by 29% due to the administration’s efforts on community policing.
Since announcing his campaign in July, Perkins has garnered more support than any of the other 14 candidates running for Sen. Cassidy’s seat. It proves that you don’t need a big name to win a race, you just need big ideas. But you can’t survive on big ideas alone—you need a plan.
I’ve heard people say the possibility of electing a Black Democrat in Cassidy’s space is a stretch, but the success of Perkins’ four-month campaign blows that theory out of the water. His experience in the army, at law school and as a mayor for a major city in Louisiana make him more than qualified for this job.
But what does this have to do with young Louisiana natives?
Well, everything. While voting to elect our next president is important, the members of Congress are equally responsible for tackling the nation’s most pressing concerns, especially those of young voters.
I had the opportunity to interview Perkins and get a better feel for his ideas and how his proposed policies will affect young people specifically.
Student debt in the United States has reached $1.6 trillion, exceeding the sum of car loans and credit card debt alike. At 34 years old and a fairly recent law school grad, Perkins is no stranger to this issue.
“I know what it’s like to accrue college debt,” Perkins said. “Not many senators are talking about it because they don’t understand…when most senators went to college and grad school, tuition was much more affordable.”
Perkins also believes senators should be actively trying to expand the Affordable Care Act.
“We have two senators that are actually trying to undermine it, and my opponent Senator Cassidy is leading the charge,” Perkins said. “He tried to pass the Graham-Cassidy bill that would’ve stripped away healthcare from half a million Louisianians and jeopardized the healthcare of one million more Louisianians.”
Those numbers represent nearly 25% of the state’s entire population.
When I asked Perkins what he thinks would be the best way to tackle racial injustices in the U.S., his stance was clear:
“We need to do a thorough evaluation of qualified immunity,” Perkins said. “Our laws should be based off our values without excluding whole demographics of our society.”
Many of the injustices that happen in America are protected by an unjust set of laws; tackling racial injustice starts with fixing these precedents.
Though climate change is a big issue for the country as a whole, it presents many specific issues to the state of Louisiana. “We have disproportionately been impacted by climate change and extreme weather, and a lot of the infrastructure in our cities is suffering because of it,” he said.
“Millennials and Gen Z-ers are going to disproportionately carry a burden that other generations didn’t have to,” Perkins added. He’s completely right—and this statement could be applied to any of the other issues we talked about as well.
Right now, decisions are being made that will affect our whole lives moving forward. There is a lot at stake for all of us this fall. Thankfully, we have a candidate who wants to protect our interests and the greater good.
We must get out to the polls and vote, and vote for Adrian Perkins.
In closing the interview, I had to ask: “Purple or gold?”
“I choose both,” Perkins said.
Olivia James is a 20-year-old political science junior from Baton Rouge.