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.
Shawn Wilson speaks after a loss to Jeff Landry in the Louisiana governors race during his election night party at the Westin in New Orleans, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
But Wilson underperformed, especially among African-American voters, collecting only about half as many votes as the attorney general. Landry picked up more votes than expected.
Landry won about 51.5% of the vote, compared to 26% for Wilson.
Attesting to Landry’s strength, none of the four other “major” candidates on the ballot even reached 10% in their vote totals.
Landry walked onstage to blaring Cajun music at 10:16 p.m., flanked by family, friends and U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, who represents Acadiana. Landry was introduced as “Louisiana’s governor-elect.”
“Tonight’s election says that our state is united, and it’s a wakeup call,” he told the crowd. “It’s a message that we are going to expect more out of our government.”
He walked offstage to raucous cheers and the violin-laden intro of Garth Brooks’ “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
Wilson conceded about 30 minutes later, telling a crowd in New Orleans that “there are no regrets in the Wilson household.” He called on his supporters to join him in making sure the new governor keeps his promise to retain the expansion of Medicaid to the working poor, which was instituted by Edwards.
Shawn Wilson speaks after a loss to Jeff Landry in the Louisiana governors race during his election night party at the Westin in New Orleans, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
“Don’t give up on Louisiana,” he exhorted everyone to cheers.
The overall turnout was 36.5%, said veteran pollster Greg Rigamer, which was several points less than expected.
“Right now, people are fed up with what’s happening in Washington,” said Carlos Metaxas, a Wilson voter in New Orleans.
Landry proved to be a strong campaigner in the primary, vastly outraising all of the other candidates and securing endorsements over four other major Republican candidates, from former President Donald Trump, the Louisiana Republican Party, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, Higgins, U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Sheriffs Association and other interest groups.
In campaign appearances, TV ads and mailers during the primary, Landry pitched himself as a battle-tested conservative who knows what it takes to fight crime, keep “woke” politics out of the classroom and build stronger families.
Wilson, a Democrat, secured the endorsement of Edwards, the Louisiana Democratic Party and U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, the only Democrat in Louisiana’s congressional delegation. He has also snagged the endorsement of the Louisiana AFL-CIO.
Wilson has pitched himself as a candidate who will follow Edwards’ example in working in a bipartisan manner to move the state forward and who knows what to do thanks to 25 years of work in state government for Democratic and Republican governors.
Shawn Wilson supporters watch Jeff Landry win the governor race during Shawn Wilson’s election night party at the Westin in New Orleans, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. Jeff Landry is the next governor of Louisiana. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Wilson was attempting to become the first Black candidate to win statewide office in 150 years.
Republicans will hold a strong majority in both the House and Senate.
Late in the campaign, two of the other major candidates, Hunter Lundy and Stephen Waguespack, told crowds that Wilson was so unelectable that a vote for him was actually akin to a vote for Landry.
But the final result in the primary showed that neither Lundy nor Waguespack — nor any other candidate — could make headway against Landry or Wilson.
At Landry’s election night party at the Broussard Ballroom, an event space in the small city in Landry’s native Acadiana, a crowd of Landry supporters and state and local GOP figures snacked on fried alligator and meat pies as the results rolled in.
After the polls closed at 8 p.m. and as the crowd awaited Landry’s arrival, his lead swiftly ballooned. Chatter at the party turned quickly to whether the favored Republican candidate could win without a runoff — a possibility discussed by political insiders for weeks, but one they considered unlikely due to the breakdown of Louisiana’s Democratic voters.
John Couvillon, a Baton Rouge-based pollster who typically works with Republican candidates, called the race for Landry at 9:45 p.m.
In an interview moments later, Landry spokesperson Kate Kelly said the campaign had been hopeful about the possibility of an outright victory. But Landry expected the race to head for a runoff; that he built a lead large enough to spell a possible outright victory came as a shock.
“I didn’t have a press release prepared for this,” Kelly said.
Landry was so certain of his political strength during the primary that he ducked campaign forums where he had to appear on stage with the other candidates and skipped three of the four statewide televised debates.
Landry’s absences also limited the opportunities for the other candidates to attract attention by attacking him.
After angling for the state’s top job for years, Landry made the first major move in the governor’s race when he secured the endorsement of the Louisiana Republican Party last November. Critics complained the endorsement came after Landry and the party struck a secret, backroom deal.
Landry brushed off the criticism and soon began to reap the benefits, as wealthy business owners began pouring six-figure donations into party coffers that could be spent directly on Landry’s gubernatorial campaign.
Big name Republicans — U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, Cassidy, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and U.S. Rep. Garret Graves — all passed on the race.
In May, Trump endorsed Landry, a move that, given the former president’s popularity among conservatives, “will make it harder to keep Landry out of the runoff,” political analyst Ron Faucheux said at the time.
A first-time candidate, Waguespack resigned in March after nearly a decade as president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry to run for governor.
For a time, political insiders thought Waguespack’s relationships with wealthy business owners throughout the state might allow him to raise enough money to challenge Landry.
Waguespack campaigned as a Mitt Romney-style Republican whose pro-business plans would make Louisiana so enticing that investment would swell, and workers would find plenty of jobs in the state.
Waguespack also campaigned as an optimistic Ronald Reagan-style Republican who said that Louisiana was poised for good times under the right leadership because more united Louisiana residents than divided them.
But those messages didn’t connect with voters in a state that Donald Trump carried in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections with nearly 60% of the vote. A pro-Landry super PAC hammered Waguespack in TV ads for serving as a senior aide to then-Gov. Bobby Jindal, who left office in 2016 reviled by many voters.
Waguespack also won about 5% of the vote.
Treasurer John Schroder also offered himself as pro-business candidate, saying he would run the state like a CEO. A Republican, Schroder also promised to combat political corruption and reduce government spending.
Schroder’s campaign never caught fire. He won about 5% of the vote as well.
Lundy, a veteran trial attorney and fundamentalist minister from Lake Charles, sought to tap into public dissatisfaction with both political parties by running as the lone independent among the major candidates. He poured over $2 million of his own money into the campaign to broadcast his unique message to voters.
Lundy sought to appeal to social conservatives with a strict, anti-abortion message and to economic progressives with a call for raising the minimum wage, extending a sales tax scheduled to expire in 2025 and making petrochemical polluters pay for their damages.
He won slightly less than 5% of the vote.
State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, a two-term Republican from Slidell, touted herself as a candidate who would offer “common-sense solutions” to Louisiana’s problems, with her background as an oil and gas engineering executive, a mother, a grandmother and lawmaker.
Hewitt’s campaign also never took off.
Danny Cole, a Democrat and Pentecostal minister from Jena who received no attention from the mainstream press, outpolled her with about 2.5% of the vote.
She finished with slightly less than 2% of the vote.
Wilson, Waguespack, Lundy, Schroder and Hewitt attended dozens of campaign forums across the state, and state Rep. Richard Nelson appeared with them until he dropped out of the race on Sept. 20 and endorsed Landry.
During his appearances, Nelson impressed observers by offering a detailed plan to phase out the state income tax and reduce the Huey P. Long-system of governing that has concentrated power in Baton Rouge for nearly 100 years.
Nelson left the race in September after qualifying, which meant that his name remained on the ballot. He won less than 1% of the vote.
Staff writer James Finn contributed to this article.