Royce Duplessis sees gains after entering race for New Orleans mayor

New polls show Louisiana State Sen. Royce Duplessis gaining ground in the 2025 race for New Orleans mayor, though city council vice president Helena Moreno remains the leading candidate.

Duplessis, a 42-year-old Democrat who turned heads when he announced his surprise candidacy last month, is at 14% in a mid-July poll from Ronald Faucheux and Voice of the People PAC, run by local real estate developer and waste manager Sidney Torres IV.

600 voters were surveyed and nearly half (47%) said they would back Moreno, matching an earlier poll from Faucheux before the candidate filing deadline of July 11. City council member Oliver M. Thomas Jr.’s share dipped from upwards of one-fifth to 14% in the new poll.

A second poll, a more informal project conducted on July 23 with a social media poll and web questionnaire from Newtral Groundz Media, shows Duplessis netting roughly half of likely voters, with Moreno in a distant second.

Duplessis, a Black Catholic who attends St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in the Tremé neighborhood, has spoken of his campaign as a response to overwhelming community overtures after his earlier decision to stay out of the race due to financial and family concerns.

“After listening, I mean, really listening, to the people of this city, your frustrations, your disappointment, your confusion, and most of all, your lack of enthusiasm, it became painfully clear that I couldn't afford not to run,” Duplessis said at a kickoff event in early July at the Ashe Powerhouse Theatre.

“Some are working overtime to protect and preserve the status quo, to maintain business as usual. But here's the truth: New Orleans will never become its greatest if we accept complacency.”

Duplessis also appealed to recent controversies in New Orleans as a sign of the need for new leadership. The current mayor, LaToya Cantrell—a fellow Black Catholic—has long been dogged by accusations of corruption and mismanagement, leading to low approval ratings and protracted clashes with the city council, which has been led by Moreno since 2019.

Now term-limited, Cantrell will depart office next year, setting up an October showdown this year among 14 candidates, including a mix of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

Duplessis, an attorney who has served in the state senate since 2022, is known for backing statewide criminal justice reform, solutions for maternal and infant mortality rates, and worker protections. He formerly served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, succeeding Moreno in District 93.

Thomas, a Democrat whose earlier tenure on the city council ended with his resignation over federal bribery charges, served a 33-month sentence before his release in 2010. He was reelected to the city council in 2022, and has advocated for affordable housing and protection of the city’s cultural assets.

Moreno, a Democrat and former journalist who has led all polls for mayor since they began earlier this year, is seen as an appealing bipartisan candidate—having formerly endorsed a Republican in a 2010 race for the U.S. House of Representatives. In her tenure, she has worked for criminal justice reform and business interests, and is currently endorsed by the abortion rights group EMILY’s List and the Latino Victory Fund.

Should she prevail in the fall, Moreno would become the second New Orleans mayor in a row not to hail from the city itself. Cantrell, elected in 2017, was the first such mayor since Chep Morrison in the mid-20th century. Moreno would also be the city’s first White mayor since Mitch Landrieu left office in 2018; all others since 1978 have been African Americans.

According to the latest Faucheux poll, only 29% of Black voters in the majority-Black city back Moreno and some 18% of surveyed voters are still undecided about who they’ll select for their ballots come Saturday, Oct. 11. Candidates in the open primary system will need a majority of votes in the first round to avoid a runoff, which would take place Saturday, Nov. 15.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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