Robert, Louisiana
Robert is an unincorporated community in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies east of Hammond, at the intersection of US 190 and LA 445, from which it has a signed exit on Interstate 12. Robert is the largest settlement in Tangipahoa Parish's rural 8th ward. The community, which has 20 streets and one stoplight, was thrust into the international spotlight when the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command was established at the Shell Robert Training and Conference Center to coordinate response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Notable employers. Robert is home to diverse employers: Political  demographics. In elections during the 2000s (decade), Robert demonstrated an unusually homogeneous voting behavior. In the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Barack Obama’s Louisiana vote was 57.40 percent; in Tangipahoa Parish, Obama won a plurality of 39.81 percent; but in Robert (Tangipahoa Parish Precinct 122) Hillary Clinton beat Obama 45 to 9 (a 5:1 ratio) among 64 votes cast. With comparable pluralities Mike Huckabee carried the state and the parish over John McCain on the Republican side; but, in Robert, Huckabee won with a 59.96 percent majority (among 79 votes cast). In the 2008 presidential election, McCain and running-mate  Sarah Palin carried Louisiana and Tangipahoa Parish by comparable majorities but trounced Obama and Joe Biden in Robert with 87.54 percent. Bombing range. During World War II a tract northeast of Robert served as the Hammond Bombing and Gunnery Range. As late as 2009 the 300 property owners in the tract were still under legal obligation to disclose the potential for unexploded ordnance. "[R]esidents cannot do as they wish with their properties . . . [but] have a moral obligation to reveal that it was a bombing range during a sale" according to Bruce Harrell CPA.