Louisiana Republican Party: 1970 to the Present

From the end of Reconstruction until the 1970's, the Republican Party played a very small in role in state politics. The only exceptions seemed to be when presidential candidates Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater carried the state in the years 1956 and 1964, respectively. But still the party did not actually have an active role in state politics.

In the 1970's things began to change. First in 1972, Republican Dave Treen of Metarie won a congressional seat. Two years later, Republican Henson Moore of Baton Rouge also won a congressional seat and in 1977 Republican Robert Livingston from New Orleans joined them in the U. S. House of Representatives. Then in 1979 Congressman Dave Treen won the Louisiana governors's race becoming the first Republican governor since Reconstruction.

The state legislature passed a law in 1975 that helped Republicans win elections in the state. This law, called the open elections law, banned party primaries and required all candidates regardless of party affiliation to run in the same primaries. This made it very easy for conservative Democrats to vote for Republican candidates without going through the trouble or embarrassment of changing their party preference at the voter registration office at their local courthouse. The small group of Republicans disciplined their members and only one Republican candidate would run in each election. As politics seems to be a hobby of many Louisianians sometimes there would a dozen or more Democratic candidates to split the loyal Democratic votes. This had the effect of putting the Republican candidate in the runoff election against the highest vote earning Democratic.

After Dave Treen the next Republican governor was Buddy Roemer who served from 1988 to 1992. Elected as a reform minded Democrat, Roemer left the Democratic party during his administration and vowed his allegiance to the Republican party. The state was facing a difficult financial crisis during the Roemer years and it was beneficial for the state to have a governor of the same party as the U. S. President.

The current Louisiana governor, Murphy "Mike" Foster, is also a Republican and grandson of the Louisiana governor serving at the turn of the last century.

Current U. S. Congressman, John Cooksey, Republican representing Northeast Louisiana is considering a run against Democrat U. S. Senator Mary Landrieu in two years His election to that post would end the Democratic control of Louisiana's U. S. Senate seats. Cooksey's potential run for Mary Landrieu's seat would also offer a textbook example of a race of with one candidate being an older Republican Protestant male from a rural area against a younger Democratic Catholic female from an urban area (New Orleans.)

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