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

Thirteen parishes flipped from blue to red in this year’s gubernatorial primary, unofficial voting data from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office shows, paving the way for Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry to claim the state’s top office.

Sixty of the state’s 64 parishes saw at least 50% of its gubernatorial votes go to one of the eight Republican candidates during Saturday’s election, which saw Landry win with 52% of the vote. Democrat Shawn Wilson, the former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, came in second with 26%.

Only two parishes had more than half of their gubernatorial votes go to the two Democrats running for the office: Orleans and St. John the Baptist. It was a sharp dropoff from the past two primaries in 2015 and 2019, which saw Democrat John Bel Edwards advance to a runoff, where he would ultimately win his two terms.

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Of the 60 parishes Republicans carried this year, 13 of them saw a majority of their voters vote for Democrats in 2019’s primary, including Assumption, Caddo, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Madison, Pointe Coupee, St. Bernard, St. Helena, St. James, Tensas, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana. The losses of Caddo and Jefferson Parishes were particularly damaging, being two of the 10 parishes with the most registered voters.

Two parishes saw neither party claim a majority of the votes, and both of those had a majority vote for Democrats in 2019. East Baton Rouge Parish saw 49.9% of votes go to Republicans with 45.2% going to Democrats. About 42.3% of East Carroll votes went for Republicans and 49.6% went to Democrats.

During the 2019 primary, 17 parishes had a majority of their votes go to Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Forty-four parishes had the majority of their votes go to Republicans, and three parishes did not have a majority go to either party.

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This year, every parish saw the percentage of votes going to Democrats fall from the 2019 primary, with the largest declines being in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Tangipahoa, Pointe Coupee and St. Helena parishes. Of those, three — St. Bernard, Pointe Coupee and St. Helena — flipped from blue to red from 2019 to this past election.

St. Bernard Parish went from 50.2% of its votes going to Democrats in the 2019 primary to only 19.7% this year. Democrats got 53.5% of the votes from Pointe Coupee in 2019 but only received 28% this year. In St. Helena, 67.8% of the votes went to Democrats in 2019 compared to only 28% this year.

It was a fairly stark contrast from the 2019 elections, when Democrats flipped three parishes from red to blue and claimed a majority in six parishes that did not have a majority of votes go to either party in 2015. During the 2015 primary, 47 parishes saw at least 50% of votes go to Republican candidates, while nine saw a majority go to Democrats.

Even in the state’s Democratic stronghold of Orleans Parish, the two Democrats saw a significant decline in voter support. After 87.9% of voters supported Democrats in 2019’s primary, 73.6% cast votes for Democrats in 2023.

Turnout was down fairly significantly across the state — going from about 45.9% in 2019 to about 35.8%, according to the unofficial data — but the difference was far greater for Democrats. In all, the state saw about 297,470 fewer gubernatorial primary voters in 2023 than it did in 2019.

But the total number of votes for the Republican gubernatorial candidates fell by only 273 votes. The total number of votes cast for Democratic candidates dropped by 333,773, the data shows.

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana saw large decline in Democratic votes from 2019 governor's race