Republicans have flipped Louisiana’s top office from blue to red. Attorney General Jeff Landry, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, won the Louisiana governor’s race, giving Republicans the office after Louisiana has been ruled by Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards for eight years.
With more than half of the votes, the 52-year-old Landry won’t face a runoff. This brings the total number of states with Republican governors to 27.
“Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry said Saturday night, speaking to supporters. “It’s a wake up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”
Landry has been the elected state attorney general since 2016 and has used his office to defend traditional values, including banning chemical and surgical castration of children, supporting the state’s ban on abortion, and he has fought against the rise of pornography being pushed on children in schools and public libraries.
Louisiana is has a strong resource-based economy, natural gas and oil, timber, fishing and agriculture. Louisiana is also the primary producer of salt in the United States.
The state has about 10% of U.S. total marketed natural gas production and holds about 7% of the nation’s natural gas reserves. Louisiana has 15 oil refineries that account for nearly one-sixth of the nation’s refining capacity, with the ability to process nearly 3 million barrels of crude oil per day.
