It’s two steps forward, one step back for Louisiana’s state Republican Party on an endorsement process that has roiled two congressional elections.

Earlier this week, the party endorsed state Sen. Blake Miguez for the Sixth District contest. This brought remonstrations from the other leading candidate for the seat, state Sen. Rick Edmonds. The process involves enough State Central Committee members within the boundaries of the district petitioning for an endorsement, with final approval given by the party’s Executive Committee, as usually happens.

Both candidates received the requisite support, but the Committee selected only Miguez. After the controversy flared in the media, the Committee hastily reconvened and awarded an endorsement to Edmonds as well – the first time this century the party had endorsed two candidates in a House contest.

Then it happened again, this time in the Fifth District race. Republican business executive Misti Cordell, who also serves as the chairwoman of the Board of Regents, nabbed the selection not given to three sitting GOP legislators, who apparently did not have enough petitioners. As yet none of the three have voiced complaints, but the way the procedure works, at any time if the requisite number of SCC members petitions for another candidate, the Committee can meet and add that name.

The dynamics of the endorsement’s impact in the Fifth basically mirror those of the Sixth. While it qualifies the endorsee for monetary and in-kind aid from the state and national parties, the latter won’t do anything because it has much bigger fish to fry in trying to maintain both House and Senate majorities – the district will send a Republican with certainty – and the former is unlikely to get involved in favor of one Republican over another, beyond endorsing, because it doesn’t want to create an enemy of the other quality GOP candidates in the race.

Nor will this matter for an inevitable runoff. With four strong candidates under the Republican banner fragmenting support, chances are high that Democrat state Rep. Pat Moore, as the only Democrat close to quality in the contest, will lead going into the Dec. 12 for-all-the-marbles clash. The endorsement touted by Cordell will help slightly in gaining a leg up over the other GOP quality contenders among minimum-information Republican voters, but other factors, principally the amount of resources utilized in campaigning, will matter much more. Essentially, only the top vote-getting Republican will advance and will become the seat holder.

The relative chaos in the party’s endorsement process tempts it to act counterproductively. Wisely, the party doesn’t endorse in any closed primaries, although it should do so with nominees as a way of gatekeeping against an unsatisfactory candidate, where it can signal displeasure by withholding an endorsement (Prisoner #28213-034 springs to mind). But its SCC members should resist the temptation, or change its rules (as has been hinted) to prevent multiple endorsees, and make endorsements more difficult to obtain for offices contested under the blanket primary system (as congressional elections for 2026 are, although not going forward), unless the Committee girds its loins and rejects such attempts, so that these happen only with an overwhelming favorite and, if another quality GOP candidate wins, bridges won’t be burned.

Now the largest party in the state by registrants and the dominant party by its number of state and national elected officials, Louisiana Republicans face an issue common to parties that achieve this prominence: fragmentation into bickering factions. Louisiana Republicans must take more responsibility to act as a unified force in formal backing of quality nominees or electoral survivors in two-up races against others.

Thank you for reading The Hayride!