Brach Myers will be the Lafayette area's new state senator after defeating Jesse Regan in a special election Saturday.
In the 23rd Senatorial District race, Myers won with 55% of the vote, receiving 6,769 of 12,360 total ballots cast with all 70 precincts reporting. Regan finished with 5,591 votes in unofficial results.
Both candidates are Republicans.
Myers is a state representative and senior executive at LHC Group, a national home health care business. He was elected to the House in 2023, his first foray into elected office.
Regan is a Broussard City Council member who has held office since 2019. He is also a mortgage lender, real estate developer and business owner.
The special election was called to fill the seat that Jean-Paul Coussan vacated after he was elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission in November.
covers much of central and south Lafayette and stretches north through Scott and Ossun and down south through Youngsville, the city's largest suburb.
Also on Saturday, Baton Rouge-area voters elected state Rep. Larry Selders to the 14th Senatorial District seat.
Selders won 62% of the vote, avoiding a runoff. Carolyn Hill received 20% of the vote, while Quentin Anthony Anderson got 17% in unofficial results.
The Baton Rouge opened after Cleo Fields was elected to a newly-redrawn state in the U.S. House of Representatives.