Louisiana’s incumbent Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards was re-elected to another four year term by a narrow 2.6 percent margin over Republican challenger Eddie Rispone on Saturday.
Edwards held a 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent lead over Rispone with 99.9 percent of the precincts reporting as of 11:35 eastern time, half an hour after the Associated Press called the runoff race for Edwards. Rispone called Edwards at 11:20 pm eastern time and conceded.
The runoff race was called for after Edwards failed to win the 50 percent needed in the October 12 jungle primary to be declared the winner in that earlier election. Rispone, a self-made Baton Rouge-based businessman, finished second in the jungle primary, thereby qualifying for Saturday’s runoff. Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) finished third and missed making the two-person runoff election.
Polls leading up to Saturday’s election called the race too close to call.
Two factors helped drive Edwards’ win, according to several post-election analyses: (1) Higher turnout by black voters, who supported Edwards by an 87 percent to seven percent margin, according to the final pre-election poll conducted by JMC Analytics and Polling, and (2) Disaffection among some Republican supporters of Abraham. – READ MORE