What led to Landry's triumphant win as governor? Northeast Louisiana experts speak

Republican Jeff Landry was vaulted to the state's highest office following Saturday's primary elections despite many predicting he would face a runoff against Democrat Shawn Wilson in the Louisiana governor's race.

Landry finished with 52% of the vote — avoiding a possible runoff in the Nov. 18 general election against Wilson, who finished with 26%.

Two northeastern Louisiana political scientists shared their theories on what led to Landry's triumphant win.

More: Republican Jeff Landry will be Louisiana's next governor after stunning primary win

Professor Pearson Cross of the University of Louisiana at Monroe noted that Landry's win was the result of several factors converging in his favor, with one key element being the limited public engagement in the election, which helped lead to a notably low voter turnout, "particularly for Black voters."

Cross said the low turnout led to a "rising Republican tide in the state that looks to sweep every statewide elected position either in the primary or in the runoff and a lackluster campaign run by Shawn Wilson, which was underfunded and not helped by the national Democratic Party organization."

A runoff between Landry and Wilson seemed likely given the number of Republican candidates and the threat they posed to split the GOP vote, combined with the fact that there was only one Democrat that seemed guaranteed to receive a third of the vote.

"However, neither of those two things happened," said ULM Professor Josh Stockley. "Not one Republican challenger to Landry was able to even receive double-digit votes, and Democrat and Black voters disproportionately failed to turnout relative to Republican and white voters.

"Democrat and Black voters were neither effectively mobilized by grossly unfunded get-out-the-vote operations nor were enthusiastic about their electoral options," Stockley said.

More: Low turnout from Louisiana's Democratic voters helped Jeff Landry claim governor's seat

More: Republican Jeff Landry claims back Louisiana governor's office in stunning GOP victory

There are currently 927,576 registered Black voters in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana secretary of state. However, only 97,419 of those registered voters participated in early voting.

Of 1,151,437 registered Democrat voters statewide, only 152,609 of those voters casted their ballots, according to early voting statistics.

Both experts argued that Landry had an overwhelming advantage in name recognition, money and endorsements to turn what should have been a competitive contest into a rout.

"Jeff Landry used his position as attorney general to keep his name in front of Louisiana voters with hot issue politics during his years in office," Pearson said. "His victory was built on issues popular with many Louisiana voters, connections made with other Louisiana politicians who endorsed him and his alignment with Donald Trump, Jr. and Donald Trump."

Stockley described Landry as "well funded, well recognized and well advertised."

"His three-year campaign for governor while serving as attorney general clearly paid dividends," Stockley said. "It allowed him to build a portfolio appealing to the state's conservative voters, to obtain early endorsements by prominent organizations [including] Republican Party of Louisiana, and individuals [such as] Donald Trump, and to keep out more high-profiled challengers like Sen. [John] Kennedy, Rep. [Steve] Scalise, Rep. [Garret] Graves and Lt. Gov. [Billy] Nungesser."

Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinson and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1.

Support local journalism by subscribing at https://cm.thenewsstar.com/specialoffer.

This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Here's what NELA political experts say about Jeff Landry's win