Given the rapid succession of federal thumbs-ups given to liquified natural gas export facilities in and around the Lake Charles area, and the certain resulting economic boom to come, you’d expect that on Saturday, that city’s Republican mayor Nic Hunter is set for a relatively easy re-election this year.

But as Saturday’s mayoral primary nears, Hunter – while still a favorite – has some stiffer opposition than one might expect. Perhaps not so surprising is that it’s out-of-state money playing a role on behalf of the opposition.

We’re beginning to see a good deal of that this year in Louisiana. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the role of out-of-state Democrat money with respect to the constitutional amendments on the ballot Saturday.

Hunter has four opponents in Saturday’s mayoral primary in Lake Charles: Wilford Carter II, a Democrat teacher and bail bondsman whose father is a state representative, a pair of independents in James Steward and Marshall Simien Jr.; and a Republican named Khalid Taha.

Carter can be summed up in this quote from a KPLC interview of a couple of weeks ago: “From New York to Atlanta, they’re some of the most prosperous cities in the country… why? Because they’re the most diverse. If you look at Lake Charles, we’re 51 percent African American, but we do not have that in the mayor’s office. Diversity. So one of the main platforms is to make sure everyone gets a seat at the table. Not just a few.”

The fun part here is that Simien is actually a black Democrat city councilman now running as an independent, which tells you that the black community in Lake Charles isn’t really united behind a candidate.

Hunter does get some black support, so that’s not overly surprising. And because of that he could very well win outright on Saturday.

But early-voting numbers not just in Lake Charles but elsewhere in Louisiana (not to mention nationally as well) indicate Republican voters are pretty fat and happy at the moment and not all that motivated to hit the precincts. As a result, the likelihood of a runoff is pretty high.

And if there’s a runoff, what’s going to happen in that race is very predictable. We’re seeing it already.

For example, there’s this…

And this…

So who’s the New Southern Majority IE PAC? Well, it’s a political operation spawned by none other than the Southern Poverty Law Center.

From a September 12, 2022 press release…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Today, the SPLC Action Fund, the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), announced the launch of its New Southern Leaders federal Political Action Committee (PAC) and its New Southern Majority federal Independent Expenditure Committee (IE – a.k.a. “Super PAC”) to help recruit, support and drive greater diversity among political candidates running for local offices throughout the South.

The following is a statement from Margaret Huang, President and CEO of the SPLC Action Fund:

“While many suburban counties have become more progressive and diverse in the last decade, local elected leadership remains overwhelmingly white and conservative. And these incumbents often keep winning simply because they run unopposed. In Southern states, it is not unusual for upwards of half of local elections to be uncontested. And that is how we end up with school boards that are not only banning books but also the teaching of Black history and culture, and the Holocaust; cities that arrest and kill Black citizens at a rate five times greater than whites; and elections deniers in charge of counting votes in elections.

“At the local level, we can make an immediate impact on many important issues, including reducing the number of Black men who are incarcerated; ending the criminalization of homelessness and poverty; ensuring that we have free and fair elections; and having inclusive public schools that do not restrict the teaching of science, biology, Black history, the Holocaust and LGBTQ identity.

“The New Southern Leaders PAC and New Southern Majority IE PAC will focus on recruiting and supporting a fresh new wave of candidates. Running for office for the first time, against a multi-term incumbent, is a challenge that takes courage and resources, which is why we plan to work with communities of color to build their political power by supporting Black and Brown candidates – particularly given the intense attacks against their voting rights and the blatant disregard from current elected officials. This fall, New Southern Majority IE PAC plans to spend up to $800,000 on local elections in Georgia.

“We’re extremely excited to also announce that former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) will be serving on the board of the New Southern Majority IE PAC and that our political organizations will be collaborating with the Senator’s PAC, Right Side of History PAC, in pursuit of our common goal of winning elections in the South. As a dogged campaigner who never compromised on his beliefs in a cynical attempt to win votes in a Deep Red state, the Senator’s integrity serves as a model of how we too will lean into our values when supporting and opposing candidates, that we won’t be moderating our beliefs for political expediency.”

So you’re dealing with Doug Jones, the white leftist who had a cup of coffee as a senator from Alabama in the wake of the Roy Moore debacle.

The woman in charge of the New Southern Majority IE PAC is someone named Andrea Cristina Mercado. Who is she? Well, in January she took a job working with another Democrat political operation, and this is her bio from that…

We are thrilled that Andrea Cristina Mercado will be taking the helm as the new president and chief executive officer of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund and Climate Equity Action Fund on January 2, 2025.

Andrea joins the Equity Funds after having been a grantee partner for nearly eight years at Florida Rising Together and New Florida Majority Education Fund, where she served as executive director and spearheaded large-scale civic engagement programs that continue to grow the political power of Black, Latinx, and multiracial communities. Andrea brings over two decades of experience in civic engagement, strategic campaigns, and leadership within multiracial communities.

Under her leadership, Florida Rising united a powerful coalition of state-based infrastructure to lead large-scale civic engagement programs that have increased the political power for communities across Florida, played a pivotal role in registering over 200,000 Floridians to vote, secured significant victories in voting rights and climate justice and set crucial legal precedents. Her exceptional ability to mobilize communities and negotiate with major utility companies has directly benefited more than 75,000 low-income families in South Florida.

The daughter of immigrants from Peru and Argentina, Mercado grew up in South Florida and has been organizing in communities of color and immigrant communities for more than 20 years. Her background includes leadership in the National Domestic Workers Alliance, where she led impactful campaigns for immigrant and worker rights.

Andrea is a graduate of Brown University, Fulbright Scholar and Emily’s list awardee, recently named best South Florida Activist by the Miami New Times.

So she’s a leftist from South Florida. And the Southern Poverty Law Center is based in Alabama.

And the New Southern Majority IE PAC’s address is…

…the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Atlanta-area office.

So we’ve got the SPLC now trying to infiltrate the mayor’s election in Lake Charles, assumedly to stir up as much racial hatred as they possibly can and get the black voters who have been OK with having Nic Hunter as the mayor to turn on him.

Assumedly, then, the black Democrat who would beat Hunter in the ensuing divisive carnage of an election would owe his success in large measure to Andrea Cristina Mercado, whose independent expenditures for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s PAC would give her leverage to push the agenda of the Equity Fund and all of its climate change nonsense.

On what would be the new mayor of the city at the center of our national LNG export boom.

Yes, this is Democrat out-of-state money flowing into Louisiana looking for a win. But it’s also out-of-state money flowing into Louisiana with the agenda of shutting down what could well be the single best lever for economic growth in this state over the next few years.

Don’t dismiss how pernicious and dangerous this is. If somebody who was committed, through ideological motivation or favors owed to the folks who got him elected, to shutting down LNG exports out of Lake Charles was in the mayor’s chair in that city, they could do a lot of damage.

The rest of the state wouldn’t seem to have much of a reason to care about Nic Hunter’s re-election prospects beyond “look how nice it is that Lake Charles has a Republican mayor.” Well, now you know why you should care.

Hunter needs to win that race. We can’t afford to let the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the rest of the hard-core leftists still scheming against the American people, to get a foot in the door.