John Bel Edwards Wins Second Term as Louisiana Governor

Democrat John Bel Edwards wins a second term as governor in deep-red, Republican Louisiana.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Edwards has 51.3% of the vote.

President Trump visited Louisiana three times in recent weeks to campaign for Republican gubernatorial challenger, Eddie Rispone.

As of this writing, Trump has been silent on Twitter regarding the Edwards win (Rispone loss).

Edwards’ win is critical for Louisiana’s infrastructure, including education, both K12 and postsecondary. Under Edwards’ leadership (see here also) in his first term (2016-2020), he fully funded Louisiana’s Taylor Opportunity Scholarship Program (TOPS); supported a state raise for teachers and other school personnel, and investing millions in early childhood education.

Rispone’s most notable connection to education is via US ed sec Betsy DeVos and her national, school-choice organization, American Federation for Children (AFC). Risponse is the former chair of the Louisiana branch of AFC, the Louisiana Federation for Children.

In his 2016 campaign, Edwards said he wanted to get rid of Louisiana state superintendent, John White. However, replacing White would involve a supermajority vote (8 out of 11 members) of the state ed board (BESE), which has been a market-based reform stronghold since out-of-state millions have been pumped into BESE elections beginning in 2011. The 2019 BESE election was no exception, with the lone runoff seat in BESE District 6 won by the ed-reform-favored candidate, Ronnie Morris. However, with Edwards in for a second term and lots of turnover in BESE, Edwards might have more leverage “behind the scenes” to move toward having BESE approve his choice of state superintendent.

We’ll have to see.

Even so, the reality is that any entity relying on funding from public money will surely fare better under Edwards than it would have under Jindal Rispone.

I wholeheartedly congratulate Louisiana governor, John Bel Edwards, on his second term.

John Bel Edwards

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Schneider is a southern Louisiana native, career teacher, trained researcher, and author of two other books: A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who In the Implosion of American Public Education and Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools?. You should buy these books. They’re great. No, really.

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