BATON ROUGE, La. — As Louisiana’s gubernatorial election commences Saturday, Republicans are hoping to reclaim the governor’s mansion after an eight-year hiatus whilst Democrats try to keep the coveted position in a state the place Donald Trump garnered a majority of the votes all over the remaining two presidential elections.
Six main applicants — 4 Republicans, one Democrat and one impartial — are vying for the seat this is being vacated by means of Gov. John Bel Edwards, the one Democratic governor within the Deep South. With Edwards not able to run due to consecutive time period limits, the election opens an enormous alternative for Republicans to win Louisiana’s best position.
Louisiana is one of 3 states with a gubernatorial election this autumn, along side Mississippi and Kentucky.
In general, 14 applicants are competing to prevail Edwards underneath a “ jungle number one ” system in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, appear together on the same ballot on Saturday. If no candidate tops 50% of the votes, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff on Nov. 18.
Among the Republican candidates is Attorney General Jeff Landry, who earned the endorsement of high profile Republicans including former President Trump and U.S. Rep Steve Scalise, as well as a controversial early endorsement from the state GOP.
Throughout the race, Landry has enjoyed a sizable fundraising advantage over the rest of the field. He has also faced political attacks from opponents on social media and in interviews, calling him a bully and making accusations of backroom deals to gain support.
The other major candidates running for governor are GOP state Sen. Sharon Hewitt; Hunter Lundy, a Lake Charles-based attorney running as an independent; Republican state Treasurer John Schroder; Stephen Waguespack, the Republican former head of a powerful business group and former senior aide to then-Gov. Bobby Jindal; and Shawn Wilson, a Democrat and former head of Louisiana’s Transportation and Development Department.
State Rep. Richard Nelson withdrew from the race in September and endorsed Landry but will remain on the ballot per state election laws.
With four significant GOP candidates vying for the position, Democrats are hopeful that Wilson, their sole major candidate, will succeed. In the past the Democratic Party has coalesced behind one candidate, instead of splitting votes, to push their candidate through to a runoff and hopefully face a Republican who is limping into the general election following scrutiny and targeted political attack ads.
Saturday’s election also features a slew of statewide contests, four ballot measures and localized races, including all 39 Senate seats and 105 House seats, although a significant number of incumbents are running unopposed.
The governor’s race is not the only statewide office up for grabs without an incumbent on the ballot. There is also the attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and insurance commissioner. Tim Temple, a former insurance executive vying for insurance commissioner, is running unopposed.
One closely watched race is for the job of secretary of state. Republican Kyle Ardoin holds the position but opted not to seek reelection.
Whoever is elected will take on the crucial task of replacing Louisiana’s outdated voting machines, which don’t produce the paper ballots critical to ensuring accurate election results.
The lengthy and ongoing replacement process was thrust into the national spotlight after allegations of bid-rigging. Voting machine companies claimed favoritism, and conspiracy theorists, who support Trump’s lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, inserted themselves into the conversation. Conspiracy theorists urged Ardoin to ditch voting machines altogether and instead rely on hand-counted paper ballots.
Among the candidates running for secretary of state are GOP state House Speaker Clay Schexnayder; First Assistant Secretary of State Nancy Landry, a Republican; Mike Francis, a public service commissioner and former chair of the state GOP; and Gwen Collins-Greenup, a Democrat and attorney. All four say they are against hand-counting paper ballots.
Also working for the position is grocery retailer proprietor Brandon Trosclair, who has aligned himself with a motion of conservative activists who imagine there was fashionable fraud in Louisiana’s elections. The Republican helps hand-counted paper ballots, a perception that election clerks have spoken in opposition to as it would contain counting tens of 1000’s of ballots in lots of parishes.
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