Editor’s Note: a guest post by Louisiana Republican State Central Committee member Raymond Griffin, Jr.

Two Baton Rouge residents have filed a petition to recall Governor Jeff Landry, and the organizers need you to forget something important: Louisiana is winning again.

The recall petition, filed in early May, accuses the governor of undermining “fair representation” and misaligning priorities “away from community needs.” These are vague, politically charged accusations that conveniently ignore the remarkable progress Louisiana has made under Landry’s leadership…progress that any honest observer should acknowledge regardless of party affiliation.

Let’s start with the facts.

For decades, Louisiana’s tax code was a complex structure of special-interest loopholes, layered rates, and anti-growth penalties that drove businesses and residents to neighboring states. Governor Landry finally fixed it. In a special legislative session in November 2024, he pushed through one of the most significant pro-growth tax reforms in Louisiana history, flattening the individual income tax to a single 3% rate, slashing the corporate income tax to 5.5%, and repealing the job-killing corporate franchise tax entirely.

The results have been measurable and immediate. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization, now ranks Louisiana No. 15 in the nation for individual income taxes and No. 10 for corporate taxes, a dramatic improvement from where we languished under years of liberal governance. Louisiana has shattered economic records, attracting over $100 billion in investment, including some of the largest foreign and private-sector projects in state history, generating tens of thousands of new jobs in energy, manufacturing, logistics, and technology.

New Orleanians lived for years under the shadow of crime rates that made national headlines for all the wrong reasons. Governor Landry took a different approach: enforce the law, back law enforcement, and hold criminals responsible.

The results speak for themselves. Under his administration, violent crime in New Orleans has dropped by 43%, one of the steepest declines in the entire nation. That is not a talking point. That is people going about their lives without fear and families staying in Louisiana instead of fleeing to Texas or Florida.

Louisiana’s schools have long ranked at or near the bottom nationally, a shameful legacy of an education establishment more interested in protecting itself than educating children. Governor Landry expanded school choice, empowered parents, and pushed reforms that gave families real options. The state has risen 11 spots on the Nation’s Report Card in just 13 months. That is not an accident. That is what happens when you put children ahead of bureaucracy.

A Recall That Will Almost Certainly Fail, And Should

Organizers must collect over 500,000 handwritten signatures from active registered voters across all 64 parishes within 180 days. Every governor in modern Louisiana history has faced a recall petition, and every single one has failed. There has not been a successful recall of a statewide official in Louisiana in at least six decades.

Why? Because Louisiana voters understand that elections have consequences. Governor Landry won his race decisively. He came into office with a mandate, and by every measurable indicator, he has delivered on it.

The recall is not a grassroots uprising. It is a political tantrum by activists who lost at the ballot box and refuse to accept the outcome. The very standard they claim to defend, “fair representation,” is undermined by trying to reverse through petition what the voters decided at the polls. This is also simply a publicity stunt from weak, Democratic leaders who are grasping to be relative in a state where they have lost all influence.

We should also have an honest conversation about what years of Democrat governance in Louisiana actually produced: a state ranked last or near last in poverty, education, and economic competitiveness for decades. Governor John Bel Edwards, Landry’s predecessor, left behind an overflowing state treasury; not because of any bold economic vision, but because of federal COVID relief funds. The underlying structural problems he ignored were the same ones Landry inherited and is actively fixing.

Democrat policies in Louisiana meant stagnant wages, businesses leaving for Texas, rampant crime in our cities, and a school system that failed generation after generation of Louisiana children. Voters rejected that legacy in 2023, and they will reject this recall petition too.

Governor Jeff Landry is doing exactly what he promised Louisiana voters he would do. He is cutting taxes, growing jobs, reducing crime, reforming schools, and fighting for the people of this state.

Louisiana is moving forward. The recall circus should be allowed to collapse under its own impossibility, and the governor should be allowed to keep doing the work the people sent him to do.