In an echo of the 2016 election, Democrats have been blindsided by a stunning Republican victory in a race for chief executive. Louisiana’s “jungle primary” for the governor’s seat wrapped up on Saturday, and the state’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, won a flat-out majority (52%), eliminating the need for a run-off between the top two vote-getters in November. His victory returns leadership of the Bayou State to the Republicans.
Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards has held the office for eight years but had to step down due to term limits. The top Democrat in Saturday’s race, former state transportation secretary Shawn Wilson, was only able to pull 26% of the vote despite having consolidated Democrat support in the race.
“Republican Jeff Landry claims back Louisiana governor’s office in stunning GOP victory” reads USA Today’s headline. “Jeff Landry, a Hard-Line Republican, Is Elected Governor of Louisiana,” laments The New York Times. And CNN calls Landry “a hard-line conservative.”
Ordinarily, Republican victories would not be surprising in a country where Democrats have been such obvious and painful failures. Between the alien invasion, horrifying foreign policy catastrophes, impoverishing inflation, out-of-control crime, and intensely disliked, openly corrupt Democrat officeholders, the GOP should be skating to easy victories wherever they choose to run.
But there is no denying that the abortion issue has led to disappointing Republican losses since the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision last year. From the disappointing Red Trickle in November 2022 to conservative Ohio’s special election in August that set the stage for a pro-abortion constitutional amendment, the issue has manifestly rallied left-wing voters.
Over a year has passed since Dobbs, however, and the nation is settling into the new normal in which states pass their own laws according to what their voters choose. Democrats profess to love “our sacred democracy,” so they have a hard time arguing against it when people democratically vote to protect the unborn in their own locales. But then again, logical consistency has never been Democrats’ strong point.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been such utter failures at governing that abortion may no longer be a powerful enough talisman to save them. Households have lost somewhere in the neighborhood of one-fifth of their spending power under Biden’s disastrous rule. Criminals control the streets and drive businesses away, leaving already struggling residents with nowhere to buy food or medicine. And on top of feeling poorer than they ever have, people see their tax dollars being lavished on the unabated flood of third-world foreign nationals whom the Biden administration jets to destinations throughout their homeland.
Not only that, while leftists have long professed disgust with their own country, the weak old man in the White House’s foreign policy losses have opened their eyes to what the world looks like when America isn’t a superpower. Spoiler alert: it’s terrifying. Maybe the old U.S. of A. isn’t that bad after all.
There is a second reason why Landry’s win is a striking foreshadowing of what might happen in 2024: he was explicitly endorsed by front-running presidential candidate Donald Trump. In a 15-second spot released by Landry’s campaign last spring, the candidate stands alongside Trump as the former president sings his praises:
Maybe old Orange Man Bad isn’t as radioactive as he used to be.
Related: Trump Back on Top of Biden in RCP Average
Now, as invigorating as Landry’s win is, conservatives shouldn’t get too cocky going into 2024. “Despite [outgoing Democrat Gov.] Edwards’ two victories, Louisiana remains largely dominated by Republicans,” notes CNN. “The GOP has won the last four presidential races in the state by between 17 and 20 points, and the last Democratic presidential nominee to carry Louisiana’s electoral votes was Bill Clinton in 1996.”
But while that may have explained a Republican win in a November run-off, it’s still noteworthy that Landry skated to victory in the jungle primary. He dominated the race and consolidated Republican support early on. It’s the exact opposite of the unnecessary drama Republicans in the House are working through at this time as they struggle to elect a Speaker. The moral of the story is an old one: united we stand, divided we fall. (In the case of the 2024 general election, Trump has unified support and dominated the field from the beginning. Meanwhile, it’s not even a given that Democrats will be able to drag Joe Biden’s desiccated carcass across the finish line in 2024. Advantage: Republicans.)
The very encouraging message from Landry’s victory in Louisiana (which banned almost all abortions last year) is that perhaps, just maybe, abortion is no longer a powerful enough issue to scare women into the Democrat fold. Every female in the country has by now seen the videos of what the Palestinian animals did to the women they got ahold of when they attacked Israel; that’s a lot scarier than being inconvenienced by having to drive an hour or two to the next state to abort your baby.
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