Louisiana Flips Red: Republican AG Jeff Landry Wins Gubernatorial Election Outright, No Run-off
“Jeff Landry will be the 57th governor of Louisiana after scoring a surprise outright victory in Saturday’s primary that gives him a mandate to move Louisiana to the right”
The only Democrat governor in the South, Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards, is about to be replaced by Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is now the governor-elect. Edwards, who was term-limited out, could not seek reelection.
To the surprise of many, Landry won the gubernatorial election outright. He was expected to perform well enough to easily make a run-off, but he was not expected to win, so this is quite a (welcome) surprise.
Thankful beyond belief. I’m ready to get to work for Louisiana!
— Jeff Landry (@JeffLandry) October 15, 2023
Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.
The win is a major victory for the GOP as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years.
Landry will replace current Gov. John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits.
Edwards is the only Democratic governor in the Deep South.
“Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry said during his victory speech Saturday night. “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.”
Jeff Landry will be the 57th governor of Louisiana after scoring a surprise outright victory in Saturday’s primary that gives him a mandate to move Louisiana to the right with a like-minded Legislature.
Landry, the Republican attorney general for the past eight years, will succeed Gov. John Bel Edwards in January. Edwards has been the new governor’s Democratic foe.
Polls had forecast Landry to be forced into a runoff by Shawn Wilson by capturing less than 50% of the vote.
. . . . Landry won about 51.5% of the vote, compared to 26% for Wilson.
As Louisiana’s AG, Landry fought against Democrat policies from DEI to the mutilation of children to kiddie porn in Louisiana public schools to Biden’s attempts to ‘work around’ the Constitution to silence free speech.
The New York Times (which hilariously calls Landry a “hard-liner”) reports:
Mr. Landry, a brash conservative who repeatedly fought Democratic policies in court as Louisiana’s top lawyer, will replace Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat limited to two terms.
. . . . His victory guarantees a far-right government for Louisiana — a state where Republicans have controlled the Legislature for a decade but had faced resistance from Mr. Edwards, who vetoed several bills, including ones targeting L.G.B.T.Q. people. It comes at a moment when the state is confronting soaring insurance rates and dwindling population numbers.
. . . . Mr. Landry, a confrontational litigator and politician, had won over much of the Republican base by battling Mr. Edwards and the Biden administration in court over pandemic vaccine mandates, efforts to work with social media companies to limit the spread of misleading or false theories, and environmental regulations.
He served as a sheriff’s deputy and two-term lawmaker in the House of Representatives as the Tea Party took hold in American government. But it was over the last eight years as attorney general where Mr. Landry flexed the power of a political office and his particular style of combative conservatism.
During the coronavirus pandemic, he challenged vaccine and mask mandates on the local and national level for health care workers, students and federal workers, voicing skepticism even as the vaccines were proven to help stem the spread and toll of the virus.
He has also helped lead lawsuits that resulted in a federal judge restricting the Biden administration from speaking with social media companies and saw the Supreme Court rein in the administration’s ability to reduce carbon emissions.
Jeff Landry was the co-filer of the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit that exposed how the Biden admin censored free speech online.
He also filed several other lawsuits against the Biden admin and current Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards during his time as AG.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 15, 2023
All of that sounds pretty good to me.
Plus, there’s this (via Beege at Hot Air):
The Texas Quote of the Day has Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Texan, describing how his B-17 ran out of gas at the end of World War II, forcing a crash landing. Great story!
“We tore up one ’17 pretty good when we ran out of gas. Our alternative airfield… pic.twitter.com/kYAeKyThHR
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) October 14, 2023
Full text:
“We tore up one ’17 pretty good when we ran out of gas,. Our alternative airfield was in France, because at the time we didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to make it across the Channel to England. So we went to our alternate, and when we got there it was zero visibility—just totally fogged in. I don’t know how many hundreds of planes might have gone down that day trying to find their alternate field. We were skimming the treetops and the roofs of the houses, trying to find an airfield. We’d know about where it was from our navigator; he’d tell where it was, and then we’d have to drop down through the fog to find the field. Well, finally we just ran out of gas. We moved everybody to the back of the plane, cut the motors, and looked for a field to land in. But fields over there are lined with trees, not fences. We overshot the field we picked and went right into the trees. The trees knocked the wings off, and when the plane stopped, there was a tree trunk sitting about a foot in front of us where we sat as pilots. Everybody just got up and walked off the plane. Nobody got hurt because there was no gas to explode.”
—— Tom Landry in a 1981 interview with Mark Oristano
It sounds like Louisiana is going to be in good hands. Though, to be fair, Edwards wasn’t nearly as tyrannical as other Democrat governors during covid. But he was also checked (hard, at times) by the Republican legislature in the state.
Here’s Landry’s victory speech from Saturday night:
Needless to say people have thoughts:
Spent a good part of the last year working on the Louisiana gubernatorial race.
People thought I was crazy for thinking we could win outright.
Congratulations Governor-Elect Jeff Landry.
Thank you to everyone that wrote letters to new movers.
Holy cow. We did it.
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) October 15, 2023
CONGRATULATIONS to our new Governor-elect @JeffLandry! And all our conservative friends who won their races so decisively tonight across our state! It’s a great day for Louisiana! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/pj5kUCr4EM
— Rep. Mike Johnson (@RepMikeJohnson) October 15, 2023
Congratulations to my friend AG Jeff Landry who is now the new governor of Louisiana having flipped the seat from blue to red! pic.twitter.com/Xvui5CNyx9
— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) October 15, 2023
Trump-endorsed Republican Jeff Landry wins Louisiana governor’s race, ending 8 years of Democrat rule https://t.co/TLSl0iX79N
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) October 15, 2023
.@JeffLandry @AGJeffLandry is a legal lion.
Congrats to him!!
We expect continued great things with him as Louisiana’s Governor. https://t.co/gqNaNNI92G
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) October 15, 2023
BREAKING: Jeff Landry just won the Gubernatorial race for Louisiana.
Another Republican Governor for the win!
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) October 15, 2023
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Comments
Great victory!! And I never put two and two together to know he was Coach Landry’s son. What a great WWII story. I’m going to have to track down that interview!
No, Jeff is not Tom Landry’s son. Jeff’s parents are Al and Edna Landry. Tom’s children are Tom Jr., Kitty and Lisa. Jeff’s father is from Louisiana, and Tom’s was from Illinois until he moved to Texas in hopes the warm climate would help his rheumatism. If they have a common ancestor, most likely it was in France or Quebec and over a century ago.
OT but I was struck by how young Tom Landry looks in his Army Air uniform. Quick bio look, best I can tell, he had flown 30 8th Air Force combat missions at age 20-21. And I think about the 20-21 y/olds today.
I was struck on how handsome he was.. and young.. but , oh boy
His son,
May have his conservative bent, but didn’t get the looks
How about you get rid of the back to the top marker
Incredibly important victory. Next big one is the VA State Legislative contests in Nov. Which crackpot Laura Loomer has proposed that MAGA should boycott lest a strong GoP showing somehow influence VA Gov Glenn Youngkin to enter the ’24 GoP Presidential primary.
Ugh, Loomer. Crackpot is the right word for her.
“combative conservatism” That is key.
I suspect the Democrat Voter Fraud machine was in place for the run off election and never considered the possibility that a Republican could win in the first round.
Makes sense.
The fraud machine doesn’t work here. Sure, there’s corruption, but the voting by in large is fine.
LA, aside from BR and NO, is Red. Bel Edwards, despite being a Dem, was conservative in several areas, including abortion. Raging liberals are few and far between here. Legislature is Republican controlled. Bel Edwards, as a Dem, was fine as governor. Compared to Edwards, he’s a Boy Sprout.
I, was expecting a runoff, and the forgone conclusion was that Landry was going to win. Glad we don’t have to deal with it now.
Still pissed that Randy Smith, channeling Jack Strain, won re-election.
Great victory. But I grew up in the 70s rooting for the Washington Redskins. It’s been about 45 years, but I’m not quite ready to forgive and forget!
Of course the lawyers here know of his resounding victory in court proving collusion of the Democrats and Deep State in censoring conservative opinion and scientific conclusions in media that is contrary to the propaganda put out by the Federal Government/Democratic Party.
Hopefully, KY does the same and Daniel Cameron wins next month. Too many of my fellow citizens seem to have forgotten King Andy’s covid tyranny.
Wow. Good job. With all the craziness in the world I didn’t even know this election was going on.
Now hopefully the state can get some work done to better itself.
So Bobby Jenal doesn’t count? Louisiana has been flipping for years. If want to make a big deal try from 1880 to 1972.
Who Dat?
A somewhat unsuccessful governor. I think he’s the one that originated R being the “party of stupid” in a response to an Obama SotU.
That would be Bobby Jindal not ‘Jenal’. No long suffering NO Saints fans around here to recognize that ‘Who Dat’ was a brief rallying cry in a short period where they were decent decades ago, ‘Who Dat? Who Dat say da gonna beat dem Saints? Who Dat?’ This was book ended by the fans wearing brown paper grocery bags on their heads in shame with ‘Ain’ts’ written on them.
Jindal, yeah he was a massive disappointment.
“Interestingly, and perhaps likely because of President Trump’s endorsement of Jeff Landry, the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) did not support Landry in the Louisiana governor’s race. Just another small but interesting datapoint that will be missed in this story.
As we have previously mentioned, the RGA, just like the RNC, is a captured institution now under the full control of the multinational donors.“
CTH
More CTH nuttery. It is not the RGA’s role to pick and choose among Republican primary candidates. Once there is a nominee, it supports that person. It ran ads against the leading Democrat, and set aside money to support whichever Republican made it into the runoff. That won’t now be necessary.
Landry’s close friend and fellow conservative AG Ken Paxton will likely replace Abbot next year in Texas. That will make for a great duo to combat the woke liberal communists wherever they may be. Can’t wait until Paxton indicts the entire Obama gang in the fedeal court for the Eastern Distriuct of Texas. Great jury pool, certain convictions and quick hanging.