Edwin G. Preis

Who was Edwin G. Preis?

Edwin Gustav Preis, Sr. was a farmer and businessman who served from 1966 to 2000 as the Democratic mayor of the town of Newellton in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana.

Preis was born in Waterproof in southern Tensas Parish. In the late 1940s, he moved to Newellton with his wife, Patricia Preis, to whom he was married for sixty-seven years until his death. There he engaged in business and served seven terms as mayor. After numerous election cycles without opposition, Preis was unseated in the fall of 2000 by Alex Davis, an African American who received 366 votes to Preis' 184, and 94 votes for a third candidate, F. A. "Coonie" McVay. A Mississippi River delta town, Newellton acquired a large majority of black voters after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. From 1976 to 1977, Preis was the president of the Louisiana Municipal Association. He was known for trips to Washington, D.C., from which he often secured such projects as water or sewer systems for his community. In the 1990s, he represented Louisiana at a meeting in the White House with U.S. President Bill Clinton.