The surprise victory in Louisiana’s open gubernatorial primary for Governor-Elect Jeff Landry (R-LA) on Saturday is an encouraging sign for Republicans heading into the 2024 elections, GOP insiders tell Breitbart News.
Landry, who is currently the Bayou State’s attorney general and had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, won the open primary with a nearly 52 percent majority on Saturday night. In other words, he won the governorship outright without having to face another rival in a November runoff.
The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reports a significant factor in Landry’s victory was a low turnout, the likes of which had not been seen in a decade, as well as an unenthusiastic Democrat base for his top Democrat opponent, Shawn Wilson, who took 26 percent of the vote. Moreover, the outlet notes that turnout among black voters was low, but Landry performed strongly for a Republican with black voters who hit the polls.
Grassroots Republican activist Debbie Dooley, who co-founded the Atlanta, Georgia, chapter of the Tea Party, spoke with Breitbart News about the trends and what she believes they mean for Democrats and Republicans heading into 2024. Dooley sees Landry’s victory as a strong sign for Republicans and said President Joe Biden “and their company have to be quaking in their boots now.”
Debbie Dooley, of Woodstock Ga., speaks at a hearing before a Senate Rules Committee on a plan from House Speaker David Ralston to limit lobbyist spending, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Atlanta. The committee heard testimony Tuesday on Ralston’s plan, which would generally prohibit lobbyist spending on individual state officials, including lawmakers. It contains several big exceptions. Lobbyists could still pay to wine and dine members of committees, caucuses or delegations. Lobbyists could also pay to send lawmakers on trips that are deemed related to their official duties. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
“You got to look – the lack of enthusiasm of black voters, and the fact that Landry got a higher than expected percentage of the black vote, he got a minimum of 12%, that’s unprecedented in Louisiana for a Republican,” Dooley, a native of Washington Parish, Louisiana explained.
Dooley pointed to Biden’s policies as being catastrophic to working-class Americans and questioned why voters would turn out for a Democrat given Biden’s economy, which has seen 40-year-high inflation that substantially wounded their buying power.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 22: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about gas prices (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“The Democratic policies since Biden took office have been a catastrophe for average Americans,” she said. “The high gas prices, the high food prices affect voters. I mean, why are Democrat voters, and especially black voters, going to turn out and vote for those policies to continue? I think it spells catastrophe for Democrats on a national level. I think it spells great news for Donald Trump and for Republicans, and I look forward to it.”
Dooley also pointed to the amendment that passed with 73 percent of the vote to ban private money in facilitating elections as a reason Democrats should be worried.
“What I saw in Louisiana, and I saw it before the election, is a lot of enthusiasm of MAGA voters in Louisiana,” she explained. “There was a constitutional amendment that prohibited private funds, you know, like Zuckerbucks from being used to run elections. That passed with 70% of the vote. I looked at that, and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Democrats should be in meltdown mode, and I think the Republicans – if they can unite and they should unite – I think that enthusiasm is just going to get stronger as we go into 2024. If I were a Democrat, now, if I was in the Joe Biden White House, I would just be, ‘Oh, wow, that this is going on.’ It bodes catastrophe for Democrats in 2024.”
As Landry was a Trump-endorsed candidate, Dooley believes his victory is “absolutely” a sign that Republicans should unify behind Trump, who is dominating the polls for the GOP presidential nomination.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 13: U.S. President Donald Trump waves prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship game between the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes Benz Superdome on January 13, 2020 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
“Trump excites the base. He brings in voters that don’t normally vote in a lot of elections; he brings in those types of voters,” she said. “And this is something that’s interesting: not one of the polls that were taken in Louisiana before the elections, Saturday, showed Landry winning without a runoff. Not one poll showed that. Not one pollster showed that, and the fact that he won without a runoff and the polls were way off, I strongly believe that the polling data for the presidential election are off as well, because they’re not surveying these voters… A lot of the Trump voters are not being polled or surveyed because they’re not likely primary voters, and I think the polling data is way off on the national level in Trump’s favor.”
Karoline Leavitt, a 2022 Republican Congressional candidate in New Hampshire who now serves as a spokeswoman for the MAGA Inc. PAC, said in a statement to Breitbart News that “Americans are fed up with Democrat policies that have led to record-high inflation, increased crime, and bloody wars.”
She added her view that the rest of the country will follow Louisiana’s lead in 2024.
“The rest of the country will join Louisiana in November 2024 by voting Republican and voting Trump for a secure border, a strong economy, and world peace,” she forecasted.
Brent Littlefield, a longtime political adviser and consultant to Landry, told Breitbart News that he thinks the “nature of Landry’s victory” is “exciting for Republicans and conservative candidates running throughout the country” but emphasized that the governor-elect ran an extremely strong campaign.
“I think the key thing there is that Jeff Landry is a really phenomenal candidate,” he said. “He works extremely hard, he’s very driven to win and then to govern, and I think that that’s a big benefit when you have a great candidate on the ballot like Jeff. And then you couple that with the fact that because he is a good candidate, we had a very disciplined and organized campaign and campaign team, and we were very aggressive in terms of running a strong campaign, sticking to the issues, talking about the issues that matter to the voters, and that’s critical in winning tough races.”
Like Dooley, Littlefield said the economic policies of the Biden administration had a hand in Landry’s victory, along with the governor-elect’s focus on local issues.
“I think there’s certainly dissatisfaction with some of the far-left policies that have come out of the Biden administration and the negative impact on people’s wallets and pocketbooks as a result of the Biden administration. There’s no question,” he said. “And so you know, that coupled with in-state issues that Jeff Landry talked about that were very specific to Louisiana, and then running a strong, disciplined campaign with a very good candidate certainly related to our victory.”
Andy Surabian, a Republican strategist, spoke with Breitbart News regarding Landry’s resounding win as well, saying that the victory “should send shockwaves through the political world.”
“People forget that it was just a few short years ago that a Democratic governor was elected statewide in Louisiana, so the fact that Jeff Landry was able to put this thing away without even having to go through a runoff should send shockwaves through the political world,” he said.
“It absolutely points to the fact that independent voters and moderate Democrat voters, of which there are a lot in Louisiana, are turning on Joe Biden and the Democrats,” he added.
Surabian noted that off-year elections, in some ways, can “preview” the temperature of the electorate heading into major nationwide elections.
“Look, off-year elections and special elections oftentimes preview what’s to come in the general, and I think Republicans should be feeling very good after the results in Louisiana this weekend,” he explained.
One issue that Landry zoned in on during his campaign was crime, which was the subject of his first series of advertisements in which he called out Democrat district attorneys whose jurisdictions oversee New Orleans, Shreveport, and Baton Rouge. In January, Forbes listed all three among the top ten most dangerous cities in America. In fact, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, who has been backed by far-left billionaire George Soros, was carjacked Monday night, as Breitbart News noted.
Will Reinert, National Press Secretary of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that “Democrats’ pro-crime agenda handed Landry a massive victory.”
“House Democrats had already tied an anchor around their neck when they voted to support reduced penalties for violent crime earlier in the year, but after the election in Louisiana, that anchor must feel ten pounds heavier,” he told Breitbart News.
