Clyde Fant - Five Elections As Mayor

Five Elections As Mayor

In 1944, Fant was appointed as Shreveport's public utilities commissioner by newly-inaugurated Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, himself a former Shreveport city official and, like Fant, a man steeped in the activities of the Southern Baptist Church. Fant succeeded James Reilly, who accepted a position with the State of Louisiana.

In 1946, Fant ran not for a full term as utilities commissioner but as mayor, under the city's then commission form of government. Sam Caldwell, the incumbent mayor, had run unsuccessfully against Davis for governor in 1944. Fant was elected to a four-year term and reelected in 1950. He did not seek a third term in 1954, and the position went to his fellow Democrat James Creswell Gardner, I. From 1954–1958, Fant was the president and general manager of the insurance agency Fant, Chase, and Kline.

In 1958, Fant decided to seek a return to the mayoral position. He unseated Gardner, who was closely identified with more "progressive" politics, by a large margin in the Democratic primary, and no Republican contested the post. Fant pledged to lead Shreveport to greater heights in the 1960s than had already been accomplished. Fant won again in 1962, and he was unopposed for his fifth, and as it turned out final, term in 1966.

Republicans began to gain strength in Shreveport in the middle 1960s, but no Republican challenged Fant in any of his elections. A group of Republicans tried to convince then GOP State Chairman Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., to challenge Fant in 1966. Lyons politely declined to wage a mayoral campaign, after having lost races for Congress in 1961 to Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr. and governor in 1964 to John Julian McKeithen. Fant did not seek a sixth term in 1970, in part because of health considerations. He was succeeded by the outgoing public utilities commissioner Littleberry Calhoun Allen, Jr.

Fant had been considered a potential candidate for governor or lieutenant governor, but he ran for no other office than Shreveport mayor. He served in several state appointive positions, however, including the Louisiana Tax Commission, the Board of Institutions, and the Overton-Red River Waterway Planning Commission.