Leilani Heno
Leilani Heno (unaffiliated) ran for election to the New Orleans City Council to represent District D in Louisiana. She lost in the primary on October 11, 2025.
Heno completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Leilani Heno was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She earned a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree from the University of New Orleans in 1995 and 2000, respectively. Heno's career experience includes working as a business owner.[1]
Elections
2025
See also: City elections in New Orleans, Louisiana (2025)
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for New Orleans City Council District D
Incumbent Eugene Green won election outright against Belden Batiste and Leilani Heno in the primary for New Orleans City Council District D on October 11, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Eugene Green (D) | 66.9 | 14,872 |
 | Belden Batiste (D) | 20.7 | 4,609 | |
 | Leilani Heno (Unaffiliated)  | 12.4 | 2,748 | |
| Total votes: 22,229 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Endorsements
Heno received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
2021
See also: Mayoral election in New Orleans, Louisiana (2021)
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of New Orleans
The following candidates ran in the primary for Mayor of New Orleans on November 13, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | LaToya Cantrell (D) | 64.7 | 48,750 |
 | Vina Nguyen (R) | 13.5 | 10,133 | |
| Leilani Heno (No party preference) | 8.8 | 6,605 | |
| Belden Batiste (D) | 5.1 | 3,863 | |
 | Joseph Amato (Independent) | 1.7 | 1,256 | |
 | Eldon Anderson (D) | 1.3 | 987 | |
| Byron Cole (No party preference) | 1.2 | 919 | ||
 | Luke Fontana (D) | 1.0 | 720 | |
 | Manny Chevrolet Bruno (No party preference) | 0.8 | 578 | |
 | Johnese Smith (D) | 0.7 | 553 | |
 | Matthew Hill (Independent) | 0.7 | 535 | |
 | Nathaniel Jones (Independent) | 0.3 | 231 | |
 | Douglas Bentley I (Independent) | 0.2 | 163 | |
| Reginald Merchant (No party preference) | 0.0 | 32 | ||
| Total votes: 75,325 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Candidate profile
Party: No party preference
Incumbent: No
Political Office: None
Submitted Biography: "-I am Business Owner and Author -I was born and raised in New Orleans -Goldman Sachs Graduate -Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Management from UNO -Masters Degree in Business Administration from UNO -Named the Top Fundraiser for saving premature babies for the March of Dimes -Chosen as one of the March of Dimes Outstanding Young Professionals -Selected as one of New Orleans Magazine's Top Female Achievers -Featured in Gambit Weekly’s 40 under 40 to watch -Author of four books"
This information was current as of the candidate's run for Mayor of New Orleans in 2021.
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Leilani Heno completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Heno's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- I am a strong believer in full transparency and accountability when it comes to taxpayer dollars. I believe that all city services should include clear metrics, goals and benchmarks.
- I will advocate for the implementation of clear and publicly accessible timelines for all street and infrastructure contracts. These timelines should be accompanied by appropriate incentives for timely completion and meaningful consequences for significant delays, to ensure accountability and efficient project delivery.
- I am and PRO SMALL BUSINESS. It has been twice as easy to open a business in cities outside of my own (New Orleans). Our process is riddled with paperwork and roadblock after roadblock. This MUST be streamlined in order to attract new business.
For too long, our city has relied heavily on tourism as its primary economic driver: a one-trick pony in an evolving economy. Our city can not survive and our local community can not remain within city limits long-term without industry variation and growth.
It still amazes me to think of how my Dad NEVER raised his voice my entire life, yet he commanded total respect. One of my favorite lessons he taught me was how to stand up for myself without tearing someone else down.
Dad taught me that everything is connected and everything happens for a reason even if you can’t pinpoint that reason in the moment. He would say that life is constantly talking and if you quiet your mind you can hear it. He taught me how to truly listen to my intuition.
On our car rides, we talked about life and death a lot. I can hear his voice saying that we are all made up of energy, and energy never dies even when our body does. Dad said that’s what makes us infinite.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2021
Leilani Heno completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Heno's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
-I was born and raised in New Orleans -Goldman Sachs Graduate -Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Management from UNO -Masters Degree in Business Administration from UNO -Named the Top Fundraiser for saving premature babies for the March of Dimes -Chosen as one of the March of Dimes Outstanding Young Professionals -Selected as one of New Orleans Magazine's Top Female Achievers -Featured in Gambit Weekly’s 40 under 40 to watch
-Author of four books- COMMUNITY INPUT - Without gathering information, and actively listening, you are not serving the people of our city as a whole. Once elected, I will make sure that all neighborhoods will have a seat at the table to represent their concerns and to be counted on decisions in their own neighborhoods.
- ENVIRONMENT - Heath extends far beyond our physical body. It includes the body of our land and surroundings as well. - I would promote the development of a "green" art space in all of our parks and recreation areas. - I will promote increased stormwater management and allocate funding to promote green infrastructure. - I will promote more capture and use of storm water for use in rain gardens and pervious paving citywide. - I will promote the creation of solar power stations throughout the city. And - I will offer businesses incentives to "build green".
- LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS - New Orleans has been named the fourth most entrepreneurial City in the United States. With so many small business tax payers, I have yet to see any financial measures put into place to mitigate the forced extended closures of our small businesses to keep us stable for growth upon reopening. As your leader, If I am ever faced with a global life or death situation that will put our small businesses in a position to lose, I will CONTINUE TO PROTECT you by creating a balancing plan to mitigate forced losses so that our small businesses are on an equal playing field with the rest of the region.
-The crime rate is increasing. This needs immediate attention.
-There’s very little neighborhood communication where people feel safe enough to inform police about what’s actually going on, or what they have witnessed.
-There’s an activity issue with lack of anything to do for teens.
-There’s a police presence issue where the size of the community alone is so big that it’s difficult to man.
-And there is a consequence issue where kids are getting arrested and then being allowed to return back home without having to face the judge, or meet with a counselor to evaluate their circumstances.
- I will protect you by allocating a real budget to protect witnesses. There are people on the streets who know what happened.
- I will get to the root of youth crime by teaming up with the best criminologists and psychologists to determine what is the best approach for this age group.
- I would work with our neighbors to learn and share information on what's working and what's not working as it relates to helping our children, as well as, holding them accountable.
-I strongly believe in a dual practice of accountability while providing young people the immediate help that they need to assist them with the issues that are driving their actions. They need our help and support to avoid repeat behavior.
-My 2nd business, created right after high school, allowed me to be self-sufficient and pay off my student loans completely.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 11, 2021
| |||||||||
