BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (LifeSiteNews) — Louisiana Republican Attorney General won election over the weekend to become the state’s next governor, flipping the office to GOP hands after the tenure of term-limited Democrat incumbent John Bel Edwards.
NPR reports that Landry cleared 50% of the vote in Saturday’s jungle primary (a unique system in which both parties appear on the same ballot), defeating Democrat former Department of Transportation & Development Secretary Shawn Wilson and eliminating the need for a runoff election.
“Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry told his supporters upon his victory. “It’s a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”
As the Pelican State’s attorney general, Landry pursued a number of conservative actions, including a leading role in challenging the Biden administration’s coordination with social media companies on censorship decisions, inviting Louisiana parents to report age-inappropriate sexual books in libraries, and ensuring that localities enforce pro-life laws.
“I love the state. I love her people. I love her culture. And I think that we deserve to take our place in the South,” Landry told Fox News earlier this year. “And so after spending seven years as the attorney general working on issues that are important not only to people in Louisiana, but to many across the country, and pushing back against federal intrusion, we think it’s time to try to take Louisiana to the top.”
Though a Democrat, outgoing Gov. Edwards had a more mixed record than most of his party. Last year, he signed a law criminalizing the distribution of abortion pills by mail, while earlier this year he unsuccessfully tried to veto legislation banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and “gender-reassignment” surgeries for minors.
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“We are holding three polling places in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the country,” Landry said of the state’s status quo under Democrat leadership. “We have three cities, a state of 4.5 million people. I mean, the state, population wise, is not as big as some huge metropolitan areas, and yet we have three cities that are in the top ten most dangerous cities.”
“When you look at other states like South Dakota, like Arkansas, like Florida, like Ohio, in Mississippi,” he added, “you start to see a distinct difference between how those red states are performing economically and how blue states are performing economically.”
Landry’s victory represents some much-needed good news for the GOP following a recent string of political losses, from the White House in 2020 to the congressional midterms last year. Republicans hope it may signify a reversal of momentum going into the 2024 elections, though Landry has suggested his victory may not be representative of national trends.
“We’re not a swing state,” he said in the Fox interview. “The voters in Louisiana seem to have spoken a number of times about their support for President Trump. Normally, presidents don’t campaign a lot in Louisiana because of that. It is really a red state. It’s just time for the state of Louisiana to have a red governor.”
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