BATON ROUGE, La. — As the 2023 Louisiana governor's race nears, the campaign war chest of Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry has far surpassed the cash on hand of the state's five other prominent gubernatorial candidates — combined.
Landry, a conservative Republican and staunch former President Donald Trump supporter, has amassed more than $6.3 million in on-hand cash, according to campaign finance reports published Tuesday. Landry was the first to announce he was running for governor in Louisiana's October election, and received a controversial early endorsement from the state’s Republican Party.
“With our campaign continuing to produce robust fundraising numbers every month, it’s clear that people are investing in who they believe will do the best job as Louisiana’s next Governor,” Landry said in a written statement.
Along with Landry, there are four other high-profile Republicans running to lead the state: State Treasurer John Schroder reported $2.4 million cash on hand; Stephen Waguespack, the former-head of one of Louisiana’s most powerful business groups, reported $889,000; state Sen. Sharon Hewitt reported $664,000; and state Rep. Richard Nelson reported $280,000.
Former Louisiana Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson, who appears to be the only high-profile Democrat running for governor, reported $545,000 cash on hand. Wilson, who announced his candidacy in March, faces an uphill battle to successfully campaign in a reliably red state. For context, when current Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, first entered the 2015 governor’s race, he did so two years and eight months in advance — giving more time to travel around the state, discuss his goals, earn endorsements, gain name recognition and raise campaign funds.
Edwards, a two-term incumbent, is unable to run for governor again due to term limits, opening a huge opportunity for the GOP in a state where Trump overwhelmingly won the last two presidential elections.
Under Louisiana’s “jungle” primary system, all candidates — regardless of party affiliation — will run against one another on the same ballot on Oct. 14. If no candidate tops 50% in that primary, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election on Nov. 18.
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