In the 6th Congressional District jungle primary forced by this year’s redistricting, last week’s published Advocate poll shows Blake Miguez leading, followed by Democrats Chauna Banks and Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia, then Republican Rick Edmonds, Democrat Pat Forbes, and Republican Stephen Wagley.

In a jungle primary the top two advance to a December 12th runoff no matter the party. Early voting has already produced elevated black turnout, well above typical non-presidential levels. Miguez is the only Republican with the resources, the momentum, and the polling position to win this seat outright or advance to the runoff as the clear conservative. Edmonds is not in a position to finish ahead of both leading Democrats. Every vote cast for him, for Wagley, or for any other Republican simply reduces Miguez’s first-place standing and increases the chance that Banks and Garcia finish first and second.

The out-of-state PAC funded by the good old boys in the Edmonds Cartel has already spent $2 million smearing Blake Miguez, yet he is still in first place. They’re now burning $100,000 a day through Election Day to try to finish the job. That would be a disaster after this same crowd handed Cleo Fields this Congressional seat just two years ago.

Blake is 44 years old and represents the future of the Republican Party. He has already established a very conservative legislative record in the Louisiana Legislature. His bills banned sanctuary cities. He passed a constitutional amendment banning foreign and NGO money in elections. He delivered constitutional carry. He banned ranked-choice voting for all Louisiana elections. He imposed work requirements for SNAP benefits. He mandated reporting to ICE anyone who applies for state benefits but fails the citizenship test.

Rick Edmonds is 70 years old and running to be a freshman in Congress. How does that make sense for the future of Louisiana? It takes years to earn enough seniority to have any real impact in the U.S. House.

Edmonds has run his entire campaign saying Blake isn’t from here (he has been here since 1999 running a business, graduating from LSU, law school and working in the State Legislature).

Yet Edmonds once ran a losing campaign as a Democrat for the Louisiana legislature. In his own words from an April 23, 2002 Shreveport City Council appearance, he says: “When asked in life, ‘where are you from?’ My response has always been, ‘I am from Shreveport, Louisiana.’ I was born here, raised here, met my wife here, birthed our four sons here… I have walked the city streets, been in the public classrooms, dug postholes in the ground, spent some of my greatest days and intend to spend many more with my children and my children’s children in, that’s right, Shreveport, Louisiana.”

Well, okay then. This is the man now asking to represent a Baton Rouge-based congressional district as a Republican.

We Republicans cannot treat this like a normal primary. The choice tomorrow is between a clear, younger conservative who is already leading in the race, and who has a proven conservative record, or choosing the very real prospect of handing the runoff to a far-left Democrat Socialists of America candidate in a newly created solid Republican district.

Every Republican and conservative voter in the 6th District should consolidate behind Blake Miguez. Do not reward the Edmonds Cartel interference. Do not split the vote and hand Democrats the December runoff.

Blake Miguez is the only viable Republican. Please vote for him on Tuesday.

Connie Hair is the Louisiana State Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network and a veteran of national politics, media, and military service. She has worked on presidential and congressional campaigns, served in the U.S. Army Reserve, reported for Human Events on the Capitol Hill Press Corps, served as communications staff for a U.S. Senator and two U.S. Congressmen and spent twelve years as Chief of Staff to a Member of Congress.