Winston DeCuir Jr. Wins First New East Baton Rouge Parishwide Judge Seat

Winston DeCuir Jr. didn’t merely win the Division B seat in the 19th Judicial District Court on Tuesday; he captured it with a margin of nearly 2-to-1 over Republican Justin DeLaune, according to complete but unofficial returns reported by WBRZ. The lopsided victory carries historic weight: DeCuir becomes the first parishwide judge elected in East Baton Rouge Parish in more than three decades, a position state lawmakers created in 2025 when they restructured the local court system.

The legislative revamp did more than simply add a new judgeship. Lawmakers converted the parish from three judicial subdistricts down to two, a move they explicitly said was designed to address the parish’s racial breakdown, and in that same restructuring they established the parishwide Division B post that DeCuir will now occupy. Unlike the subdistrict seats, which represent specific geographic slices of the parish, Division B will handle a civil court docket for the entire parish, making DeCuir’s constituency every resident of East Baton Rouge rather than just one district. For litigants, businesses, and families with civil disputes, that means one judge will now oversee cases that previously might have been split among multiple subdistrict courts.

Both DeCuir and DeLaune entered the race with backgrounds in civil law, meaning voters chose between two candidates experienced in the very type of cases the new seat will oversee. That shared expertise made the lopsided outcome even more striking: despite both men being qualified for the civil docket, the electorate delivered a decisive verdict, with DeCuir, a Democrat, nearly doubling DeLaune’s vote total in a contest that drew parishwide attention and signaled strong voter preference for his candidacy over the Republican challenger.

The landslide in the parishwide race contrasts sharply with the tighter margins in the two subdistrict contests held the same night. In Election Section 1, Division L, Democrat Jermaine Guillory defeated fellow Democrat Elzie Alford with 53 percent of the vote—a comfortable win, but a far cry from DeCuir’s 2-to-1 margin. Guillory will replace Judge Ronald Johnson, who was forced to retire because he is above age 70. Guillory had served as a commissioner in the judicial district court, experience that gives him familiarity with the court’s procedures and personnel as he transitions to the bench.

Division M saw an even closer three-way contest, with Democrat Vernon Thomas taking 52 percent of the vote to replace Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts. Thomas defeated ReAzalia Allen, who garnered 27 percent, and AJ Sabine, who took 21 percent. All three candidates in that race were Democrats. Foxworth-Roberts was ousted from office this year by the state Supreme Court following false statements about an insurance claim and her military service. The ruling left the judgeship empty and prompted concerns about judicial ethics. Judge Bonnie Jackson has been handling the Division M docket since Foxworth-Roberts’s removal, serving as an interim measure until Thomas takes office.

The differing circumstances surrounding the vacancies highlight two distinct paths by which judges leave the 19th Judicial District Court. Johnson’s departure came through mandatory retirement at age 70, a standard provision that ended his tenure regardless of performance or conduct. Foxworth-Roberts’s removal, however, resulted from a finding of misconduct by the state Supreme Court, a far more severe outcome that stemmed from specific allegations of dishonesty regarding both an insurance claim and her military service record, leaving the Division M docket in Jackson’s hands until Thomas can assume the role.

For voters, the election marked a structural turning point in how the parish administers justice. For over thirty years, East Baton Rouge residents elected judges from specific subdistricts, meaning their judicial representation was geographically limited to their particular area. Tuesday’s election of a parishwide judge changes that dynamic for civil cases, consolidating that entire docket under a single judge chosen by the whole parish. The shift from three subdistricts to two, combined with the new parishwide seat, means the 19th Judicial District Court will operate with a different geographic logic than it has for decades. Combined with the reduction in subdistricts, the revamp means fewer electoral districts overall, but at least one judicial seat that answers to the entire parish rather than a fraction of it.

All three victorious candidates are Democrats, giving the party a clean sweep of the judicial races on Tuesday’s ballot, while DeLaune’s Republican bid fell short in the only parishwide contest. With DeCuir set to manage civil cases across East Baton Rouge, Guillory preparing to take over Division L, and Thomas moving into Division M, the 19th Judicial District Court enters a new era shaped both by voter choice and by the Legislature’s 2025 decision to reshape how justice is administered in the parish. The 2025 creation of the parishwide post, followed by Tuesday’s election, closes a gap of more than thirty years since the last time voters chose a judge for the entire parish.

Tuesday’s results signal the end of that arrangement.