Richard Gallot, Jr., known as Rick Gallot (born 1947), is an incoming Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 member of the Louisiana State Senate

Louisiana State Legislature

The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...

 from District 29, which encompasses the African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 portions of seven parishes: Bienville

Bienville Parish, Louisiana

Bienville Parish is a parish located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Arcadia and as of the 2000 census, the population is 15,752....

, Grant

Grant Parish, Louisiana

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 18,698 people, 7,073 households, and 5,276 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 8,531 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...

, Jackson

Jackson Parish, Louisiana

Jackson Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish was formed in 1845 from parts of Claiborne, Ouachita, and Union Parishes. In 2010, its population was 16,274. The parish seat is Jonesboro...

, Lincoln

Lincoln Parish, Louisiana

Lincoln Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Ruston. In 2004, its population was estimated to be 42,382...

, Natchitoches

Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana

Natchitoches Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Natchitoches. As of 2000, the population was 39,080. This is the heart of the Cane River Louisiana Creole community...

, Rapides

Rapides Parish, Louisiana

-Military Installations:*Camp Beauregard *Esler Airfield *England Air Force Base *Camp Claiborne *Camp Livingston -Demographics:...

, and Winn

Winn Parish, Louisiana

Winn Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Winnfield. In 2000, its population was 16,894.The parish has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....

 parishes. In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 22, 2011, Gallot received 12,992 votes (50.3 percent). Trailing was the Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Tony "Bo" Vets, with 7,579 votes (29.3 percent) and Democrat Mary L. Wardsworth, who polled 5,271 votes (20.4 percent).

Gallot, who is African American, succeeds the term-limited white Democratic Senator Joe McPherson

Joe McPherson

William Joseph "Joe" McPherson, Jr., is a retiring veteran Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate from Woodworth, a small community south of Alexandria, Louisiana, the seat of government of Rapides Parish and the largest city in the Central Louisiana region...

 of Woodworth

Woodworth, Louisiana

Woodworth is a town in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,080 at the 2000 census....

 in southern Rapides Parish, who had represented a different configuration of the district.

From 2000 to 2012, Gallot held the District 11 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives

Louisiana House of Representatives

The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...

. The House district was established after the 1990 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 to guarantee a black voter majority. Gallot won the position after the popular incumbent Pinkie C. Wilkerson

Pinkie C. Wilkerson

Pinkie Carolyn Wilkerson was an African American member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from her native Grambling, west of Ruston, Louisiana, who served from 1992 until her death in a six-vehicle traffic accident on Interstate 20 in Bossier City, Louisiana. Wilkerson was particularly...

 of Grambling

Grambling, Louisiana

Grambling is a city in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,693 at the 2000 census. The city is home to Grambling State University and is part of the Ruston Micropolitan Statistical Area....

 was killed on August 1, 2000, in a six-vehicle accident on Interstate 20

Interstate 20

Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...

 in Bossier City

Bossier City, Louisiana

Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...

. At the time of her death, Wilkerson, committed to the Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

/Lieberman ticket, had been scheduled two weeks thereafter as a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention

2000 Democratic National Convention

The 2000 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention for the Democratic Party. The convention nominated Vice President Al Gore as its candidate for President and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman as its candidate for Vice President. The convention was held at...

 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

In the 2007 primary, Gallot handily defeated the sister of Pinkie Wilkerson to win his third term in the legislative chamber.

Gallot is a member of the Gamma Psi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi

Kappa Alpha Psi

Kappa Alpha Psi is a collegiate Greek-letter fraternity with a predominantly African American membership. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never limited membership based on color, creed or national origin...

fraternity.

External links

• Louisiana House of Representatives - Rick Gallot official government website
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Richard 'Rick' Gallot Jr. (LA) profile
• Follow the Money - Rick Gallot
  • 2005 2003 2000 campaign contributions