Since entering public service with LaToya Cantrell’s election to the City Council in 2012, she has prioritized improving people’s lives. As a City Councilmember she secured passage of a citywide ordinance to ban indoor smoking in bars and restaurants in New Orleans. On the council she also focused on housing issues, working to establish a low-barrier homeless shelter and co-authoring legislation to provide more oversight of rental units.

 On May 7, 2018, Mayor Cantrell was sworn in as the first female Mayor of New Orleans, just in time to celebrate the city’s tricentennial, or 300th anniversary. She was re-elected on November 13th, 2021!