Keith Hightower

Who is Keith Hightower?

Keith Paul Hightower is an American businessman and a member of the Democratic Party. He served as the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, for two terms from 1998 to 2006.

Hightower graduated from Captain Shreve High School in 1975; one of his classmates was later State Senator Greg Barro, a Shreveport lawyer. Hightower then graduated in 1979 from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish. He was one of the relatively few graduates in his college class from Shreveport who returned to live and work in their hometown. First, however, Hightower was employed by Acme Brick Co. in Baton Rouge; the firm transferred him to Shreveport. In 1990, Hightower was elected to the first of two terms on the Shreveport City Council. He left the brick company and thereafter made his living in automobile sales.

In 1998, Hightower unseated Republican Mayor Robert W. "Bo" Williams in the municipal nonpartisan blanket primary. Hightower led with 20,250 votes to Williams' 13,637. Three other candidates, two Democrats and another Republican, divided the remaining 30 percent of the ballots. Williams, who trailed by nearly 7,000 votes, declined to proceed to a general election, and Hightower hence won the position outright.