Republican candidates flipped enough seats to gain a supermajority in the Louisiana State Senate in an election held on Saturday.
Confirmed: With 100% of precincts reporting statewide, the GOP has gained a supermajority in the Louisiana Senate. They flipped SD-28 & SD-38.
— Nathaniel Rakich (@baseballot) October 13, 2019
Republicans just gained a supermajority in the Louisiana State Senate.
We flipped several seats from #BlueToRed.
Game on.
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) October 13, 2019
Incumbent Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, failed to get the requisite amount of votes to defeat Republican Eddie Rispone. As a result, the two will meet in a runoff election next month.
BREAKING: Runoff election will decide if Louisiana's John Bel Edwards wins second term as Deep South's only Democratic governor. https://t.co/PZnolJLABh
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 13, 2019
Whether Edwards can maintain enough support to defeat Rispone and hold on to office remains to be seen.
Is Louisiana’s Dem Governor on the way out? https://t.co/gDfSY35Xm1 pic.twitter.com/rBNvIJQ03a
— HotAir.com (@hotairblog) October 13, 2019
Since Edwards is the only Democrat holding statewide office at the moment, can he continue to buck the trend and win a second term? That all depends on Republican candidate Eddie Rispone. He’s a business owner from Baton Rouge who has never held elected office before. He outspent his GOP primary opponent by a wide margin and would up splitting the conservative/GOP vote 22/20 with a projected 8% still undecided, so this could really come down to the wire.
It also appears that Republicans could gain a supermajority in the Louisiana House in next month’s election.
ICYMI: To sum up tonight: Republicans have flipped two seats in the LA State Senate and have thus created a supermajority in the chamber. They are two seats short of a supermajority in the LA State House, and looks like they'll almost certainly win another seat, which means (1/2)
— Chaz Nuttycombe (@ChazNuttycombe) October 13, 2019
that HD-62 will be the seat that determines the supermajority in the LA State House. I had it as Lean Independent, but with R's getting a cumulative 52% of the vote, it's a Toss-Up.
So there is a 50/50 chance that R's have a supermajority in the LA State House in November. (2/2)
— Chaz Nuttycombe (@ChazNuttycombe) October 13, 2019
While it’s not a good idea to make too much out of one election, it is interesting to see blue to red flips in a political environment we’re told is very hostile to the GOP.
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