The Least Qualified White Man Will Win Over the Most Qualified Black Man for Sheriff
John Nickelson will Beat Henry Whitehorn and Cement Shreveport's One-Party Administration. His evitable defeat will consolidate direct white political rule in Caddo Parish.
Henry Whitehorn is a candidate for the position of Sheriff in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. He has over 40 years of experience in local, state, and national police agencies. Whitehorn presided as Shreveport's chief of police from 2007 to 2010 and has experience as a US marshall colonel for Louisiana. Whitehorn has multiple times more experience than his opposition, John Nickelson. Nickelson served on Shreveport's city council for District C (the Broadmoor area) from 2018-2022. He has 19 years of experience as a lawyer, which means nothing for the position of Sheriff. Even though there is a dramatic experience gap, Nickelson will win this election simply because of the racial/class politics of local and state elections in Louisiana.
Nickelson has the backing of the former Sheriff Steven Prator. Steven Praytor, the one who remarked in 2017 that it was a "necessary evil" to keep the "good ones (prisoners) that we use every day to wash cars, to change the oil in our cars [and] cook in the kitchen. Nickelson stated that Prator asked him to run in his place, even though Nickelson has zero experience in policing and minimal experience in anything administration-related. It appears Nickelson is the vehicle for the consolidation of Shreveport/Caddo's one-party administration and the complete domination of Caddo's majority black population by the region's white political elite. If one looks at Nickelson's campaign website, he runs exclusively on being endorsed by Prator. If elected, he is tasked with continuing and possibly enhancing the backward, reactionary policies of his predecessor.
State-wide elections have minimal turnout. The turnout for the governor elections last month was the lowest in a decade, being 36%. The runoff on November 18th will have a much lower turnout than the October 14th primary. Low turnout has almost always benefited the Republicans as the Republican constituency ( made up of reactionary white middle suburban and rural voters) is generally more active than most demographics in Local and state elections. This low turnout is symptomatic of the complete apathy many voters have toward the political process, specifically Louisiana's black working-class population. The Democratic party has done everything to feed into this apathy by treating its black constituency as bastard children outside of the election cycle and blaming us for their failure to win elections while giving the black population little credit when it does. The Democratic Party's political machine is multiple times more disorganized and incoherent than the Republican Party's political apparatus. We've seen this stark difference in organizing during the 2023 Louisiana Governor race, which we reviewed in our previous piece regarding the need for a new black political party.
North West Louisiana's political and economic elite interest groups have rallied around Nickelson, with him generating more than twice the campaign donations than Whitehorn, $228,200 and $94,933, respectively. Along with the endorsement of the previous Sheriff, Nickolas has received the endorsement of the Local Police Union, the Governor-Elect of Louisiana (Jeff Landry), and Desoto Parish Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle. Experience does not matter to North-West Louisiana's political elites in this election. The regional/local elites focus on their short-term racial and class interest rather than anything related to governing. This rallying shows us two realities: how vital the Sheriff's position is and this election being principally about race.
Please see the Article by The Appeal (12) for how much power the Sheriff has. The Sheriff has complete control over the prison and the Sheriff's budget. Sheriffs have tremendous political and administrative powers within their regions. They can do anything from civil asset forfeitures (police stealing) to detainees' costs. They can choose which laws to enforce and not to implement. A large amount of the Sheriff's power is due to them having very little oversight, as they are not accountable to anyone while in office.
Nickelson will win the election because the bulk of Louisiana's white political elite and their reactionary middle-class constituency are focusing their efforts on destroying any political gains made by Black Louisianians and consolidating their power. The Democratic party also seems to be allergic to winning anything. It has petered out of political relevance for the foreseeable future. Like most of Louisiana's political elite, Nickelson is not good at anything useful for society. Louisiana's political elites are allergic to building good infrastructure, decent city planning, or increasing residents' quality of life. Still, they are good at playing politics. Whitehorn has two significant flaws: he is competent at what he does. Still, he does not know how to do politics effectively. He is campaigning on his experience at local, state, and federal level policing agencies instead of dog-whistling and advertising his personality as Nickelson does. As we have seen for the last few decades, this is what wins elections. Nickelson will win simply because he is white and he is able to play to Southern White identity politics.
References:
(1)Whitehorn announcing run: https://www.ksla.com/2023/06/06/henry-whitehorn-wants-be-caddos-sheriff/
(2)Whitehorn linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-whitehorn-82567156
(3)Nicklson Anouncing Run: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/election/2023/07/16/former-city-councilman-john-nickelson-is-running-for-caddo-parish-sheriff/70400665007/
(4)Nicklson Anouncing Run: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/newshres/election/2023/07/16/former-city-councilman-john-nickelson-is-running-for-caddo-parish-sheriff/70400665007/
(5) Prator keeping good men in Jail by ACLU: https://www.laaclu.org/en/news/aclu-louisiana-condemns-local-sheriffs-argument-keep-good-people-jail-free-labor#:~:text=ACLU%20of%20Louisiana-,ACLU%20of%20Louisiana%20Condemns%20Local%20Sheriff's%20Argument%20to%20Keep%20%E2%80%9CGood,in%20Jail%20for%20Free%20Labor&text=The%20ACLU%20of%20Louisiana%20today,jail%20to%20perform%20prison%20labor.
(6)Video of Prator talking his shit:
https://www.facebook.com/KTBS3/videos/10156905601737575
(7)Low Voter Turnout: https://www.wafb.com/2023/10/17/louisiana-saw-lowest-voter-turnout-decade/
(8) Campaign financing: https://www.ktbs.com/news/northwest-louisiana-sheriffs-candidates-report-campaign-contributions-expenses/article_7a588e88-540e-11ee-b4ac-9bf7906503af.html
(9) Who’s endorsing Who: https://www.shreveportbossieradvocate.com/news/see-whos-endorsed-each-caddo-parish-sheriff-hopeful/article_f24aa692-7a65-11ee-8418-ff5690ce3c85.html
(10) Akata-Tribune on Democratic Party's Failure in 2023: https://akatatribune.substack.com/p/louisianas-new-one-party-state-proves
(11) https://johnnickelson.com/?utm_source=Adwords&utm_campaign=NickelsonJ_nickelson-election-day_20231110&utm_medium=Search&utm_content=nickelson-election-day&utm_agency=PG&gclid=CjwKCAiA0syqBhBxEiwAeNx9NwtXJgmRA-5Vv_wmHrfDCKKRhnH2bohrb3tmNRgdYJXFeFYGLniJyhoCqbAQAvD_BwE
(12)The Power of the Sheriff: https://theappeal.org/the-power-of-sheriffs-an-explainer/#:~:text=While%20the%20precise%20role%20of,a%20person's%20cause%20of%20death.