1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election

1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election

October 19, 1991 (first round) November 16, 1991 (runoff)

Candidate Edwin Edwards David Duke Party Democratic Republican First round 523,096 33.76% 491,342 31.71% Runoff 1,057,031 61.17% 671,009 38.83%   Candidate Buddy Roemer Clyde C. Holloway Party Republican Republican First round 410,690 26.51% 82,683 5.34% Runoff Eliminated Eliminated

Edwards   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   80–90% Duke   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Roemer   30–40%   40–50%

Governor before election Buddy Roemer Republican Elected Governor Edwin Edwards Democratic

The 1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election resulted in the election of Democrat Edwin Edwards to his fourth non-consecutive term as governor of Louisiana. The election received national and international attention due to the unexpectedly strong showing of David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, who had ties to other white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups. Incumbent Republican Governor Buddy Roemer, who had switched from the Democratic to Republican Party during his term, ran for re-election to a second term but was eliminated in the first round of voting.

Background

In 1991, all elections in Louisiana except U.S. presidential elections followed a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes 50% or more of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may be members of the same party. In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 19, 1991, and the runoff was held on November 16. In 1990, Duke mounted a campaign for the U.S. Senate, losing to incumbent Democrat J. Bennett Johnston. Leading Republicans repudiated Duke's candidacy, citing his history as a white supremacist.

Public Service Commissioner Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, announced her candidacy in May 1991. Edwards was not impressed by her entry. It was the first time in 40 years a woman had seriously run for Governor but Edwards surmised she would not get out of single digits. Blanco, who came from Acadiana, could have complicated Edwards' bid for a fourth term but after 100 days she suddenly withdrew and ran for Public Service Commissioner again. Blanco would later be elected governor in her own right in 2003.

Meanwhile, Governor Roemer was facing a potential opponent for the Republican support who could have denied him major party support he needed to stave off Holloway and Duke. Another prominent party-switcher, Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, who withdrew from a 1990 U.S. Senate bid, actively explored a gubernatorial bid. His father, former Governor John McKeithen, would prove to be a strong asset had he run, but in the end, McKeithen figured that his time had come and gone and ran for reelection as Secretary of State.

Primary election

After the withdrawal of Blanco and McKeithen, the field of candidates began to solidify. Then late in March, incumbent Governor Buddy Roemer changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, dismaying many members of both parties. One irate Republican was the state party chairman, Billy Nungesser of New Orleans. After failing to get the Louisiana Republicans' endorsement convention canceled, Roemer announced he would skip the event. The convention, as expected, endorsed U.S. Representative Clyde C. Holloway, the favored candidate of the anti-abortion forces in the state, with whom Roemer was at odds at the time.

The first round primary gubernatorial contest included Roemer, Edwin Edwards, David Duke, and Eighth District Congressman Holloway who all ran in Louisiana's open primary. Roemer was wounded by his mistakes as governor, while Edwards and Duke each had a passionate core group of supporters. Roemer placed third in the primary. One of the contributing factors to his defeat was a last-minute advertising barrage by Marine Shale owner Jack Kent; Marine Shale had been targeted by the Roemer administration as a polluter, and Kent spent $500,000 of his own money in the closing days of the campaign to purchase anti-Roemer commercials.

Results

First voting round, October 19

1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Edwin Edwards	523,096	33.76
	Republican	David Duke	491,342	31.71
	Republican	Buddy Roemer (incumbent)	410,690	26.51
	Republican	Clyde C. Holloway	82,683	5.34
	Democratic	Sam S. Jones	11,847	0.76
	Other	Ed Karst	9,663	0.62
	Democratic	Fred Dent	7,385	0.48
	Republican	Anne Thompson	4,118	0.27
	Democratic	Jim Crowley	4,000	0.26
	Democratic	Albert Powell	2,053	0.13
	Other	Ronnie Johnson	1,372	0.09
	Democratic	Cousin Ken Lewis	1,006	0.06
Total	1,549,255	100

Runoff election

Campaign

Faced with the alternative of David Duke, many Louisianans who were otherwise critical of Edwards now looked favorably on him as an alternative. This included Buddy Roemer, who ran on an "Anyone but Edwards" platform during his successful 1987 campaign. He ended up endorsing Edwards rather than Duke, who was the putative Republican candidate.

The resulting runoff campaign was widely seen as one of the dirtiest and most negative campaigns in recent history. Edwards and his supporters seized on Duke's record as a white supremacist; Duke responded by claiming to be a born-again Christian who had renounced racism and anti-Semitism after his conversion.

Nearly the entire Republican leadership rejected Duke's candidacy. In a news conference, President George H. W. Bush condemned Duke as unfit for public office, stating:

When someone has a long record, an ugly record, of racism and bigotry, that record simply cannot be erased by the glib rhetoric of a political campaign. So I believe David Duke is an insincere charlatan. I believe he's attempting to hoodwink the voters of Louisiana. I believe he should be rejected for what he is and what he stands for.

Humorous unofficial bumper stickers were created in support of Edwards over Duke, despite Edwards' negative reputation. One bumper sticker read "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard", while another read "Vote For The Crook: It's Important."

Anti-Duke poster in New Orleans.

Debate

The runoff debate, held on November 6, 1991, received significant attention when reporter Norman Robinson questioned Duke. Robinson, who is African-American, told Duke that he was "scared" at the prospect of his winning the election because of his history of "diabolical, evil, vile" racist and anti-Semitic comments, some of which he read to Duke. He then pressed Duke for an apology. When Duke protested that Robinson was not being fair to him, Robinson replied that he did not think Duke was being honest. Jason Berry of the Los Angeles Times called it "startling TV" and the "catalyst" for the "overwhelming" turnout of black voters that helped former Governor Edwin Edwards defeat Duke.

Results

Runoff, November 16

1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election runoff
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Edwin Edwards	1,057,031	61.17
	Republican	David Duke	671,009	38.83
Majority	386,022	22.34
Total	1,728,040	100
	Democratic gain from Republican

Runoff results by parish
Parish	Edwin Washington Edwards Democratic		David Ernest Duke Republican		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%
Acadia	14,928	60.44%	9,772	39.56%	5,156	20.88%	24,700
Allen	6,171	60.46%	4,036	39.54%	2,135	20.92%	10,207
Ascension	14,792	53.48%	12,867	46.52%	1,925	6.96%	27,659
Assumption	6,488	59.67%	4,385	40.33%	2,103	19.34%	10,873
Avoyelles	9,044	53.72%	7,792	46.28%	1,252	7.44%	16,836
Beauregard	5,565	46.70%	6,351	53.30%	786	6.60%	11,916
Bienville	4,685	59.30%	3,216	40.70%	1,469	18.60%	7,901
Bossier	14,536	50.14%	14,457	49.86%	79	0.28%	28,993
Caddo	59,933	64.08%	33,591	35.92%	26,342	28.16%	93,524
Calcasieu	40,617	65.71%	21,193	34.29%	19,424	31.42%	61,810
Caldwell	2,112	37.04%	3,590	62.96%	1,478	15.92%	5,702
Cameron	2,669	64.75%	1,453	35.25%	1,216	19.50%	4,122
Catahoula	2,815	44.79%	3,470	55.21%	655	10.42%	6,285
Claiborne	4,329	57.70%	3,174	42.30%	1,155	15.40%	7,503
Concordia	4,544	47.41%	5,040	52.59%	496	5.18%	9,584
De Soto	6,607	59.11%	4,571	40.89%	2,036	18.22%	11,178
East Baton Rouge	100,138	66.41%	50,656	33.59%	49,482	32.82%	150,794
East Carroll	3,017	68.98%	1,357	31.02%	1,660	37.96%	4,374
East Feliciana	4,949	59.55%	3,362	40.45%	1,587	19.10%	8,311
Evangeline	8,947	54.50%	7,470	45.50%	1,477	9.00%	16,417
Franklin	4,410	41.65%	6,179	58.35%	1,769	16.70%	10,589
Grant	3,516	43.86%	4,500	56.14%	984	12.28%	8,016
Iberia	16,594	56.43%	12,814	43.57%	3,780	12.86%	29,408
Iberville	10,693	64.56%	5,870	35.44%	4,823	29.12%	16,563
Jackson	3,345	44.49%	4,173	55.51%	828	11.02%	7,518
Jefferson	102,261	59.30%	70,183	40.70%	32,078	18.60%	172,444
Jefferson Davis	8,581	63.79%	4,870	36.21%	3,711	27.58%	13,451
Lafayette	40,816	64.63%	22,336	35.37%	18,480	29.26%	63,152
Lafourche	21,346	59.29%	14,655	40.71%	6,691	18.58%	36,001
LaSalle	2,432	33.12%	4,910	66.88%	2,478	33.76%	7,342
Lincoln	9,382	61.22%	5,943	38.78%	3,439	22.44%	15,325
Livingston	12,152	39.58%	18,554	60.42%	6,402	20.84%	30,706
Madison	3,582	61.04%	2,286	38.96%	1,296	22.08%	5,868
Morehouse	6,517	47.30%	7,261	52.70%	744	5.60%	13,778
Natchitoches	8,870	58.24%	6,360	41.76%	2,510	16.48%	15,230
Orleans	173,744	87.02%	25,921	12.98%	147,823	74.04%	199,665
Ouachita	26,137	49.45%	26,722	50.55%	585	1.10%	52,859
Plaquemines	6,689	55.79%	5,301	44.21%	1,388	11.58%	11,990
Pointe Coupee	7,430	61.32%	4,687	38.68%	2,743	22.64%	12,117
Rapides	27,638	55.95%	21,762	44.05%	5,876	11.90%	49,400
Red River	2,674	53.34%	2,339	46.66%	335	6.68%	5,013
Richland	3,970	43.39%	5,179	56.61%	1,209	13.22%	9,149
Sabine	4,635	46.88%	5,251	53.12%	616	6.24%	9,886
St. Bernard	14,394	44.23%	18,153	55.77%	3,759	11.54%	32,547
St. Charles	12,680	61.66%	7,885	38.34%	4,795	23.32%	20,565
St. Helena	3,700	60.18%	2,448	39.82%	1,252	20.36%	6,148
St. James	8,028	66.34%	4,074	33.66%	3,954	32.68%	12,102
St. John the Baptist	11,993	64.21%	6,685	35.79%	5,308	28.42%	18,678
St. Landry	23,362	61.34%	14,725	38.66%	8,637	22.68%	38,087
St. Martin	12,726	64.20%	7,095	35.80%	5,631	28.40%	19,821
St. Mary	15,039	61.42%	9,447	38.58%	5,592	22.84%	24,486
St. Tammany	32,678	55.88%	25,800	44.12%	6,878	11.76%	58,478
Tangipahoa	18,779	53.28%	16,469	46.72%	2,310	6.56%	35,248
Tensas	1,993	58.84%	1,394	41.16%	599	17.68%	3,387
Terrebonne	19,799	59.17%	13,662	40.83%	6,137	18.34%	33,461
Union	4,029	40.09%	6,020	59.91%	1,991	19.82%	10,049
Vermillion	14,477	64.75%	7,882	35.25%	6,595	29.50%	22,359
Vernon	6,676	49.33%	6,856	50.67%	180	1.31%	13,532
Washington	9,157	46.40%	10,577	53.60%	1,420	7.20%	19,734
Webster	9,024	51.77%	8,406	48.23%	618	3.54%	17,430
West Baton Rouge	6,016	59.52%	4,092	40.48%	1,024	19.04%	10,108
West Carroll	1,625	31.12%	3,596	68.88%	1,971	37.76%	5,221
West Feliciana	2,896	64.47%	1,596	35.53%	1,300	28.94%	4,492
Winn	3,660	46.05%	4,288	53.95%	628	7.90%	7,948
Totals	1,057,031	61.17%	671,009	38.83%	386,022	22.34%	1,728,040

Analysis

Edwards' large victory was credited to his almost unanimous support from black voters, who had a turnout of 80%. He also won 75% of voters who supported Roemer. 63% of female voters and 59% of male voters supported Edwards. Duke received 56% of white voters with family incomes under $15,000, 63% of those with incomes between $15,000 and $29,999, and 60% of those with incomes between $30,000 and $49,999. 51% of white voters with family incomes between $50,000 and $74,999 and 66% with incomes above $75,000 supported Edwards.

Sources

• First gubernatorial debate
• Second gubernatorial debate
• Third gubernatorial debate
• Louisiana Secretary of State Elections Division. Official Election Results Database
• Statewide primary results, October 19, 1991
• Primary results by parish: Governor, October 19, 1991
• Statewide runoff results, November 16, 1991
• Runoff results by parish: Governor, November 16, 1991
• WWL-TV (New Orleans) coverage of runoff results
• WDSU-TV (New Orleans) Coverage of Runoff Results (Via C-SPAN)