I am pleased to report to our party and like-minded conservatives that the efforts of our candidates, the organizations which supported them, and the LAGOP were hugely successful this past Saturday. Our successes were achieved at every level of government, up and down the ballot.

The voters made their displeasure with the governance of John Bel Edwards abundantly clear: They turned out in record numbers, surpassing the 2015 election total by over 200,000 votes, while delivering fifty-two percent of the gubernatorial vote to Republicans. John Bel Edwards vote decreased in sixty-two of Louisiana’s sixty-four parishes. The Senate will be sharply more conservative, and our existing majority in the House will be enhanced.

Congratulations are in order to our gubernatorial candidate, Eddie Rispone, who is now our standard bearer in the run-off on Saturday, November 16th. Our thanks go out to Eddie and his family for the great personal sacrifices made on our behalf, with the same thanks to Ralph Abraham and his family. Our Congressman from the Fifth District has been a tireless fighter for a better Louisiana, and his election night endorsement of Eddie Rispone spoke directly of his selfless devotion to our state. Allow me then to quote his words:

“It’s the end game that is important and we need to move our state, my state, to a better spot.”

– Congressman Ralph Abraham, October 12, 2019    

Surely his words ring true to every Louisianan. We live in a state blessed by abundant natural resources, especially our oil and gas wealth, and one of the greatest waterways on the planet. Above all, we have a proud, hard working citizenry which deserves better than it has received from the John Bel Edwards’ administration these last four years. Consider just a few of our many problems, for example:

• Louisiana has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and our fellow citizens are leaving the state in droves because our growth rate is one of the lowest in the nation.
• Our taxes and fees have risen sharply, while our neighboring states have reduced the tax burden on their citizens. The cost of governing Louisiana has sky rocketed by twenty-five percent in just four years.
• Even with sharply higher taxes, there is insufficient money left over to repair our aging roads and infrastructure because waste and corruption in government have increased sharply under John Bel Edwards.

Yet our current Governor proudly proclaims that his administration has been a success, while in fact it has been a return to the old way of Louisiana politics which is the root cause of our problems. The scion of a Democrat political dynasty, John Bel Edwards learned old-school politics at the knee of his father and grandfather. Our politics were then a grab bag of goodies for the political victors with very little concern for the common man, and the Bel and Edwards’ family were indeed political victors.

With numerous legislators and sheriffs to his families’ credit (‘credit’ is perhaps an inappropriate term considering the history of state and federal investigations), John Bel Edwards had only to become a trial lawyer and then one of the most liberal Democrats in the House to complete the most destructive political trifecta since the days of Edwin Edwards. As heir of a corrupt political dynasty, a trial lawyer with little business experience, and a liberal legislator straight from the Huey Long mold, John Bel Edwards was uniquely unsuited to the task of running a poor state which desperately needed business investment. The results of his administration were entirely predictable for those willing to see through the “moderate Democrat” facade.

If John Bel Edwards hid behind false promises in 2015, his disasters are certainly in plain view now. To confront his failures and deny him a second term, we have a proven businessman with a highly successful track record and an oft-demonstrated concern for the most vulnerable of our citizens, the poor and underprivileged children of our state.

We have the right man for the job, strong legislative majorities in both houses, and a united political party approaching one million strong. The time to turn Louisiana around is NOW! I ask that you vote for Eddie Rispone on Saturday, November 16^th.  Our future depends on your vote.

LOUIS GURVICH, Chairman
Republican Party of Louisiana