Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards reelected in Louisiana to new four year term

Anoth­er win for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, anoth­er defeat for Don­ald J. Trump.

Vot­ers in Louisiana tonight have reelect­ed incum­bent Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov­er­nor John Bel Edwards, keep­ing the Pel­i­can State’s top elect­ed posi­tion in Demo­c­ra­t­ic hands for anoth­er four years. With 99% of precincts in Louisiana report­ing, Bel Edwards had 51% of the vote (773,118 votes as of 8:40 PM Pacif­ic), while Repub­li­can chal­lenger Eddie Rispone had 49% of the vote (733,160 votes).

Bel Edwards’ near­ly forty thou­sand vote lead was pro­pelled by three key parish­es: Orleans (home of New Orleans), East Baton Rouge, and Caddo.

In Orleans Parish, Bel Edward has a jaw-drop­ping 90% of the vote (114,812 votes), while in East Baton Rouge, he has 66% (102,671 votes) and in Cad­do he has 58% (44,687 votes). Bel Edwards also per­formed well in Jef­fer­son Parish, with 57% of the vote (72,192 votes) and West Baton Rouge with 57% (6,501 votes).

“Louisiana, Ken­tucky, and Vir­ginia have deliv­ered a dev­as­tat­ing warn­ing to Don­ald Trump’s Repub­li­can Par­ty — Gov­er­nor Edwards’ vic­to­ry is anoth­er sign of Democ­rats’ surg­ing strength,” said Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee Chair Tom Perez in a state­ment cel­e­brat­ing the vic­to­ry. “As vot­ers reject the GOP agen­da, Democ­rats are com­pet­ing and win­ning in every cor­ner of the coun­try. Less than a year before the 2020 elec­tion, the wind is firm­ly at our backs.”

Perez’ state­ment not­ed that the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee invest­ed hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars into the Louisiana Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to sup­port Bel Edwards and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic tick­et. Clear­ly, that invest­ment has paid off.

“Rispone, a sev­en­ty-year-old busi­ness­man mak­ing his first run for pub­lic office, had Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump at his side at ral­lies – along with $2 mil­lion and six­ty paid staffers sent at the last minute from the Repub­li­can Nation­al Com­mit­tee and mil­lions more from the Repub­li­can Gov­er­nors Asso­ci­a­tion – hop­ing to flip the office to the GOP,” not­ed The Advo­cate of Baton Rouge.

“Rarely have pres­i­dents been so involved in a state-lev­el race,” The Advo­cate’s staff report observed, explain­ing: “Trump vis­it­ed Louisiana three times to ral­ly Repub­li­can and rur­al vot­ers to head to the polls and ‘fire’ Edwards, call­ing him ‘a rad­i­cal.’ Trump told Louisiana vot­ers they could send a mes­sage to nation­al Democ­rats that they stood behind him by vot­ing for Rispone.”

Instead of heed­ing Trump, vot­ers in Louisiana have cho­sen to reelect John Bel Edwards, emphat­i­cal­ly rebuk­ing Don­ald Trump just days after vot­ers in Ken­tucky dumped Repub­li­can Gov­er­nor Matt Bevin and vot­ers in Vir­ginia gave Democ­rats uni­fied con­trol over the state­house in Richmond.

Bel Edwards is the only Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nor in the Deep South.

The gov­er­nor’s reelec­tion vic­to­ry is all the more sig­nif­i­cant in that it came in a Sat­ur­day runoff elec­tion in the mid­dle of Novem­ber. Democ­rats are often at a dis­ad­van­tage in low­er turnout elec­tions, but they were able to return Bel Edwards to the gov­er­nor’s man­sion in this runoff. Quite the accomplishment.

“Have to give cred­it to Edwards/Dems’ runoff turnout oper­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly w/ African-Amer­i­can vot­ers,” tweet­ed Dave Wasser­man of the Cook Polit­i­cal Report. “Com­pared to the pri­ma­ry, turnout was up… 29% in New Orleans, 26% in Shreve­port, 14% in Baton Rouge (w/ 6 precincts still out).

“And just 9% every­where else.”