New Orleans City Councilmember Oliver Thomas conceded the mayor’s race Saturday night, but not without throwing a few final punches.
Speaking before a crowd of supporters at the Maison Blanche event venue on the Interstate 10 Service Road in New Orleans East, Thomas, who came in third place with 19% of the vote, said that Moreno’s win was the result of “different forces lined up together to get this result.”
“This movement isn’t just going to stop at this effort,” Thomas continued. “Every resource, every system, every organization is at play. The devil don’t want 99%, the devil want 100%.”
Thomas also accused news organizations specifically of pushing Moreno’s win, saying that “every time they did a news story, every time they did an article, this was the result that they wanted.”
Moreno, who won with 55% of the vote, received a flood of financial and institutional backing, raising more than $3 million in just under a year in which she was officially campaigning, according to state ethics filings.
Oliver Thomas conceded the New Orleans mayoral race to winner Helena Moreno on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. Read more at http://www.nola.com.
Video courtesy of Oliver Thomas campaign
Thomas also congratulated Moreno and said that he would respect the results. But he told his supporters not to “give up the fight” and to work to hold the new administration accountable.
“We’re going to make sure that New Orleans is the New Orleans it’s supposed to be,” he said.
Thomas did not identify what New Orleans is “supposed to be” but appeared to reference the need to maintain the city’s racial demographics.
“This city is too important for us to lose it, for us to watch it be diluted,” said Thomas, who paused and added: “You got that?”
Moreno is White and Hispanic and received broad backing from White political and business leaders but also drew support from many of New Orleans’ most influential Black political and community leaders — like former Congressman Cedric Richmond and District Attorney Jason Williams, but also church pastor Tyrone Smith and 8th Ward Black Seminoles Chief Kenny Young.
“They cannot come to us in sheep’s clothing anymore. They can’t come to us asking for our unfiltered, undying support anymore. They can’t lie to us anymore,” said Thomas, before singing a line from the O’Jays popular R&B song “Back Stabbers.”
In an email Sunday morning, Thomas took a much lighter tone, with the subject line “Sending my love.”
“I want to send my love to not just the people who supported me, but all of New Orleans,” Thomas wrote.
“My hope is that we will come together for a New Orleans where services are reliable, jobs are growing and that we invest in every neighborhood, not just a few,” the email concluded.
Source link
