Louisiana

1st vote for GOP for President

1956

1st vote for GOP for governor

1980

1st vote for GOP for senator

2004, last southern state to elect a republican senator

1st vote for GOP for member of congress

1972

When was the legislature flipped?

2010-2011

Current partisan leadership

republican statewide officeholders

Current Senate

28 R — 11 D

current house

73 R — 31 D

current congress

4 R — 2 D

What slowed development of the GOP

Adoption of 1974 Jungle primary

Jungle primaries

eliminated for congressional, PSC, BESE and seats on the state supreme court prior to 2026

Who was blamed for poor preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005

Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) and NOLA Mayor Ray Nagin

2011 Reapportionment

New Orleans’ population declines and LA loses a member of congress.

• Kathleen Blanco replaced by Bobby Jindal

• Nagin replaced by Mitch Landrieu

What isolates elections for state and local offices from national political trends?

They occur in odd-numbered years

Third Party Experience

1948 and 1968

New Orleans Creole Culture

free African Americans before the civil war

New Orleans

one of the least repressive parts of the south during the jim crow era

school desegregation

peaceful aside from riots in NOLA

1st African American elected to state house

1967

1st African American elected to state senate

1978

Dutch Morial

became 1st black mayor of NOLA in 1978 (consistently filled by blacks except for Mitch Landrieu in 2010-2018)

1st African American sent to US House

1990: William Jefferson

2nd black elected to congress

1992; retires in 1996 but Cleo Fields returns to congress in 2025

Percent black

32%

race baiting

Huey and Earl long (unlike other southern demagogues)did relatively little, Huey Long pointed to Standard Oil instead

Klansman David Duke

wins a state house seat and makes runoffs for the senate (1990) and the governorship (2021)

coverage by section 5?

yes

Who came closer to being a dictator than any other governor?

Huey Long

Edwin Edwards

served 4 terms as governor from the 1970s-1990s, gambler and subject of multiple investigations which eventually sent him to federal prison

How did Long and Edwards solidify their positions?

extensive public expenditures

• long builds the state capitol, governors mansion, Tiger Stadium, bridge across the MS river and paved roads

Who dominated the legislature?

Long and Edwards

Jon Bel Edwards

(D, 2015-2023) faced republican legislature which caused him problems and eliminated the governor’s ability to name the speaker, senate majority leader, and chairs of important committees

Term limits for Governor

2 consecutive terms

Term limits for state legislators

three four-year terms

Economic Interests

• New Orleans: one of the nation’s busiest ports

• seafood industry

• petro-chemicals

• sugar and rice

Unique features

• corruption

• huey long’s dictatorial actions and assassination

• Long family dynasty and bifactionalism

• Cajun influence

Larger what population than elsewhere in the south?

Catholic

Very little population growth

450,000 from 1980 to 2020

Law

Napoleonic code rather than common law

David Duke loss to Edwards

“Vote for the crook. It’s important”