UPDATE: The video (courtesy of KPEL’s Nathan Pike)…

ORIGINAL: Sen. Elbert Guillory of Opelousas is now a Republican.

Guillory announced the change around noon today, making him the only black Republican in the Louisiana Senate – and the only black Republican state senator in the country that we can find. It happened at the @large conference, which is still ongoing.

Guillory said he was leaving the “party of disappointment.”

“As of this day, I join Frederick Douglass as a Republican.”

“Today the party of disappointment has moved away from the majority of Louisiana. They have moved away from traditional values of most Americans. They have left us behind on crucial issues like abortion, vouchers, 2nd Amendment rights, union control of public jobs, school prayer, family issues.”

Naturally, the Louisiana Democrat Party immediately and savagely attacked Guillory for his move – following a tired and despicable pattern of demonizing black conservatives they’ve perfected.

State Democratic Party executive director Stephen Handwerk called the party switch “a craven display of political opportunism.”

Handwerk called on Guillory to resign his senate seat “since he has chosen to abandon the Democratic Party values that the voters elected him to represent.”

Because remember, all white Republicans and conservatives are racists, and all black Republicans are Uncle Toms.

Handwerk would go ballistic and howl about racism if anyone from the GOP called a black Democrat “craven.” The word is especially chosen for its vitriol and ugliness; choosing a status as the only black Republican in a state senate is something most people would consider courageous rather than “craven” – that adjective is wholly inappropriate to describe Guillory’s decision.

It’s evidence of the failure of the Louisiana Democrat Party. It’s the sound of the levee breaking.

The Democrats no longer have a monopoly on black legislators in Louisiana. They’ve lost that today.