Burghart Turner for Plaquemines Parish President

About the Candidate

Burghart Turner

Lifelong resident of Plaquemines Parish.

Burghart Turner is a lifelong resident of Plaquemines Parish. He graduated from Port Sulphur High School in 1981 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps that same year.

In 1985 he was hired by Chevron, where he would spend the next thirty-one years before retiring in 2016. Over that career he worked as a roustabout, an aviation and marine dispatcher, a Transportation Coordinator, a Quality Improvement Coordinator, a Health and Safety Coordinator, and a certified port security officer — a path that took him from the deck to the desk where safety and standards are set.

He served on the Plaquemines Parish Council from 2007 to 2014. Those years covered some of the hardest chapters in the parish’s modern history. He assisted many families with their recovery after Hurricane Katrina and the hurricanes that followed, and again after the BP oil spill.

Burghart accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior while serving in the Marine Corps and has been serving Him ever since. He is the Pastor of Port Sulphur Baptist Church. He has participated in mission trips in Kenya and China, and has traveled to Europe on many occasions.

His work on port development has been international in scope. He has met with leaders in Honduras to discuss the Port of Cortés partnering with Plaquemines Parish Government. In 2009 he met with the President of the International Association of Ports and Harbors, who was also second in command at the Port of Mombasa; the Port of Mombasa was willing to partner with the Port of Plaquemines. Geraldine Knatz, then president of the American Association of Port Authorities, offered her support and to roll out the red carpet to assist with port development in Plaquemines.

Today he continues to pastor, to serve, and to work for the parish that has been his home for his entire life.

A documented stand

He said no to the money.

When the parish’s port consulting work was steered toward insiders, Burghart Turner was the one who objected — out loud, and on the record.

As a councilman, he questioned an arrangement in which a consultant helped write the specifications for a parish contract and then joined the firm that won it. He did not leave it at a private doubt:

“It’s a major conflict. No matter how you slice it, it’s wrong.”

Asked what the parish was actually getting for its money, he put it plainly: “I think we’re being milked — I think we’re being taken advantage of.”

Then the same consultant offered him a campaign contribution. Burghart refused it. Some members of that council accepted money from the firm and voted for the contract. He took neither the check nor the deal.

He has never taken money that came with strings attached, and he will not start now. Every dollar raised for this campaign is recorded and reported exactly as Louisiana law requires.

Documented in a WWL-TV investigation of the parish’s port consulting contracts

The Road So Far

  1. 1981Graduates Port Sulphur High School; enlists in the United States Marine Corps.
  2. 1985Hired by Chevron; begins as a roustabout.
  3. 2005Assists families across the parish with recovery after Hurricane Katrina.
  4. 2007Elected to the Plaquemines Parish Council.
  5. 2009Meets the President of the International Association of Ports and Harbors on a Plaquemines port partnership.
  6. 2010Assists families with recovery after the BP oil spill.
  7. 2014Completes two terms of service on the Parish Council.
  8. 2016Retires from Chevron after 31 years.
  9. TodayPastor of Port Sulphur Baptist Church; candidate for Plaquemines Parish President.

Track record

He has never quit on this parish.

Burghart Turner has run for Parish President before. Every time, roughly a quarter of Plaquemines voters have stood with him — against opponents who outspent him many times over.

In 2018 he finished third with 24 percent of the vote. In 2022 he finished fourth with 23 percent — the same share of the vote as the sitting Parish President that year. Both times he ran against much better-funded opponents, largely self-funded, because he does not believe a seat should go to whoever raises the most money.

He is running again because the fundamentals have not changed. The port is booming, and the people down the road are still waiting to feel it. Recovery money still arrives and still stops short of the families it was sent for. He believes Plaquemines Parish does not need a smarter slogan — it needs a Parish President who knows how to run a safety program, read a contract, keep a straight set of books, and answer the phone when somebody in Port Sulphur calls.

Put this record to work for the parish.

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