Louisiana’s Democratic governor forced into Nov. runoff

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’ quest for a second term as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor will stretch over another month, as voters in his crimson state denied him a primary win Saturday and sent him to a runoff election.

The Democratic incumbent was unable to top 50 percent of the vote in the six-candidate field, raising questions about his reelection chances against a national Republican offensive that includes President Donald Trump. Trump made a last-minute appeal to Louisiana’s voters to reject Edwards. With

98 percent of precincts reporting, the governor had received 46.6 percent of the vote.

Edwards will compete in the Nov. 16 runoff against Eddie Rispone, a Baton Rouge businessman and longtime GOP political donor making his first bid for public office. He had garnered 27.4 percent of the vote.

Rispone largely self-financed his campaign, reaching the second place spot after outspending fellow Republican contender U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham 5-to-1, who had received 23.6 percent of votes.

Three Republican statewide elected officials on the ballot won reelection to four-year terms: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, Attorney General Jeff Landry and Treasurer John Schroder. Three other GOP incumbents also were seeking to hold on to their jobs, and voters were deciding four proposed constitutional changes.

Republicans sought to prove that Edwards’ longshot victory in 2015 was a fluke, aided by a flawed GOP opponent, David Vitter, who was hobbled by a prostitution scandal and attacks on his moral character from fellow Republicans in the primary.

Democrats want an Edwards reelection to show they can compete even in a state Trump won by 20 points.

But the 53-year-old Edwards isn’t exactly a Democrat in the national mold. The West Point graduate and former Army Ranger opposes abortion and gun restrictions, talks of working well with the Trump administration and calls the U.S. House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry a distraction to governing in Washington. He signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans.