Hello everybody!
My name is Frank Driscoll and welcome to Driscoll's Election Dissection, your election analysis
for across the circus.
I hope you're all doing well today, wherever you are.
If you listened to our last show, our very first show, you'll notice that we looked at
two specific primary elections for two congressional special elections, one in Rhode Island, the
other in Utah.
Well, in Rhode Island, Gabe Amow ended up winning that election, receiving about 32%
of the vote and called right on election night, so just enough to not outlast any other candidate.
So he'll be the Democratic nominee in the Rhode Island election.
And in Utah was a much closer race and between Celeste Malloy and Becky Edwards for the second
district's Republican primary, it was back and forth on election night, but it wasn't
until a couple days after when Celeste Malloy received enough votes to call the primary
election in her favor.
So Celeste Malloy will be the Republican candidate in Utah's District 2 election on November
21st.
Now, we're not going to be talking about those two elections in the future because they're
both seen pretty leaned toward their Republican and Democratic counterparts.
And it doesn't really make for an eventful election there.
But today we talk about the first gubernatorial election of this year so far, although the
two other ones have had their primaries already.
This one is technically a primary, but could also be the general, which is funny how that
system works in this particular state.
So today we're headed to the bayou.
We're going to Louisiana and talking about its gubernatorial primary election set for
Saturday, October 14th.
An election on a Saturday.
Wow, I guess that should bring people out to vote.
I would assume so.
So here's what's going on down in Louisiana.
The incumbent governor is John Bell Edwards.
He's a Democrat, was elected in 2015 and reelected in 2019.
And he is a Democrat in a red state.
However, he has been able to appeal to Louisiana's Republican base as he's one of the only top
named Democrats who's anti-abortion along with other conservative values.
So he's been able to cross appeal to both sides of the electorate.
Now, Governor Edwards is term limited and cannot run for reelection this year.
And that brings an open primary for this.
Now, Louisiana has a different system of electing their governor than most states do.
For example, in the primary election, all of the candidates appear on one ballot.
And by all, I mean all.
Republican, Democrat, Independent, Third Party, whatever.
They all appear on the same ballot.
Everybody gets the same ballot and you could vote for whomever the heck you want.
It doesn't matter if you're a registered party voter.
You can vote for the other party if you want to.
Nobody's going to stop you.
Now, if a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary election, they
win.
They win the governor's seat just like that.
If not, however, then the two candidates with the most votes will move on to a runoff election
or as they like to call it, the general election scheduled to be held on November 18th.
Now, if you know a lot about elections around the world and you're probably thinking to
yourself, oh, hey, that's how France elects their president.
Well, you'd be right.
That's the standard two round system.
And Louisiana is the only state that really does it like that.
Like California and Washington are somewhat similar, but they don't have a majority finisher
per se.
So, in this election, the Republican Party of Louisiana really, really wants the governor's
seat back.
Now, Louisiana already has control of both houses in the state legislature and they're
destined to hang on to those, which elections also occur on the October 14th and November
18th.
They elect the legislators the exact same way with the runoff system.
And it seems very likely that they're going to hold both seats because their margins
are pretty high.
So, the Republicans want a trifecta here.
And given the state's red lean, they might be able to do that.
So, last year, the first candidate to enter the race was Jeff Landry, who was also Louisiana's
attorney general.
Now, the Louisiana Republican Party knew that Donald Trump was a good confidant of Jeff
Landry.
So, they figured we might as well, you know, take what we can here.
So, they had a meeting over Zoom, the party elite, and they officially endorsed Jeff Landry
for governor.
Now, this actually alienated a lot of Republicans throughout the state, including legislators,
who found it very odd that they didn't have a say in that vote and the vote was behind
closed doors.
So, as a result, some more Republicans throughout the state decided to throw their hat in the
ring.
They include state Senator Sharon Hewitt, state treasurer John Schroeder, and former
state chamber CEO Steven Wakespeck.
Now, unfortunately, the other three have not been able to gain any ground because despite
the controversy of how the state Republican Party endorsed Jeff Landry so early, not a
lot of Republican voters really knew about that.
So, they didn't really care.
So, Jeff Landry is the front runner on the Republican side.
And with an endorsement from Donald Trump, as well as nearly all of Louisiana's congressional
delegation, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who, as of this taping, could
possibly also be our next House Speaker, except for Louisiana's 6th district representative
Garrett Graves, who endorsed Steven Wakespeck.
Believe it or not, Mr. Wakespeck has gotten a bit of momentum in the polls.
His numbers going up a bit, but I don't know if it's going to be enough to make the runoff
election.
And speaking of which, although Jeff Landry is leading in polls, the guy right behind
him is the only major Democratic candidate in the race.
Now, the Louisiana Democratic Party knows that it's going to be an uphill battle, losing
Governor Edwards, who they believe was a real electable candidate throughout the state.
So, they want to find someone with that appeal and who can possibly beat a man like Jeff
Landry.
So, there's only one major Democratic candidate in the race, and that is former State Transportation
Secretary Sean Wilson.
Now, Sean Wilson has the endorsement of Governor Edwards, as well as Representative Troy Carter,
the only Democrat in Louisiana's House delegation, along with other members of the state legislature
who are Democrats, and of course, the Louisiana Democratic Party is going all out for him.
And polls have showed that it is very likely going to be Landry and Wilson in the top two.
But Landry doesn't seem to have enough to get a majority.
That could be thanks to the other Republican candidates in the race or what.
The highest he's been polling is 40%, and that was a poll from last month.
This poll was from Mason Dixon.
And despite that, there is about 15% of undecided voters in the poll.
So, a lot can change in between them.
And the Cook Political Report has this race as a lean Republican, which means there is
a good chance that the scale would tip to elect a Republican governor.
But if given the right momentum, the Democrats could possibly keep it.
So we're very likely going to be heading to a runoff on November 18th.
Now, of course, I can't predict that I'm no Nostradamus, but that seems to be the case
based on the cards we're dealt here.
And that election might be closer than we think.
You know, it could depend on how the two candidates go forward with their campaigns.
So we're likely going to talk about it before November 18th.
And I just want to let everyone know that if you are a registered voter in Louisiana,
I don't care who you vote for, but I do care that you vote.
So please do.
Thank you all for listening to Driscoll's Election Dissection.
If you'd like to learn more about the show, go online to algidproductions.com slash across
the circus and be sure to listen to us on any podcasting forum you like.
Thank you all for listening, and I'll see you all very soon.
Algid Productions LLC Outro. Thank you for listening!