SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Voters in Caddo, De Soto, and Red River parishes elected First Judicial District Judge Craig Marcotte to Louisiana’s Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Saturday’s Open Municipal Primary.

Marcotte defeated fellow Caddo Parish’s First Judicial District Judge Erin Leigh Waddell Garrett in the hotly contested race to serve the eight years remaining in the term of retired Judge Jeanette Garrett.

Marcotte garnered 57.58% of the votes (11,362) to Waddell Garrett’s 42.42% (8,370).

Marcotte spent almost 14 years on the bench of Louisiana’s First Judicial District Court (FJDC), presiding in criminal and civil courts. He collected a plethora of endorsements from law enforcement leading up to the election that included the Fraternal Order of Police, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator, former De Soto Parish Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle and De Soto Parish District Attorney Charles Adams, as well as several elected officials.

No stranger to public service, Waddell Garrett is the daughter of 1^st JDC Judge Bobby Waddell, who retired in 2020 after serving 30 years on the bench. Prior to that, Waddell spent 10 years representing District 4 in the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Her father was chief judge in 2014 when she defeated Vivian attorney Doug Dominick for the 1^st JDC Division K seat, and she ran unopposed for a second term in November 2020.

Waddell Garrett did not collect as many endorsements, instead running on her record as a good and fair judge presiding over drug court, as well as bringing her life experience of working from an early age and her practical experience of raising four school-age children, while serving as a full-time district judge.