Top Stories of 2025: City elects first Black mayor

Published 6:22 am Thursday, January 1, 2026

Marshall J. Simien Jr. is Lake Charles’ 30th mayor — and the first Black individual to be elected to the position.

He unseated former Mayor Nic Hunter, who served two terms, in a run-off election in May 2025 with 52 percent of the votes.

This isn’t the genesis of his civic service. He served on the Lake Charles City Council for District A for eight years, where he served as vice president and president.

He also served on the Lake Charles Port Board, the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, the Louisiana State Board of Commerce and Industry and the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana.

A graduate of Washington-Marion High School, McNeese State University and the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Simien calls himself a “son of Lake Charles.” And as a child of the city, he is “humbled and proud” to be its mayor.

Simien was sworn into office by Justice Piper D. Griffin of the Louisiana Supreme Court on June 30, 2025, in Sudduth Coliseum in the Lake Charles Event Center.

“When I look in this room, I see people that I have seen all of my life. You raised me. I hear the voice of my father from heaven and the chorus of all those who have gone before us. Whose sacrifice has paved the way for where we are now,” Simien said during his mayoral address. “We are going to work as hard as we can for you. We are going to do the best we can. We are going to make this city work like it has never worked before.”

Four new Lake Charles council members were sworn in alongside Simien: Donald Fondel, District B; Tommy Bilbo, District C; Matthew “Matt” Young, District D; and Matthew Vezinot, District G.

They joined incumbents Ronnie Harvey Jr., District A; Stuart Weatherford, District E; and Council President Craig Marks, District F.

The four-year term for Simien and the Lake Charles city council members began on July 1, 2025.