KENNER, La. — Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Louisiana Saturday for a voter turnout event in Kenner. The vice president is trying to boost the two Republicans running for governor ahead of the Oct. 12 election.
Pence will be at the Pontchartrain Convention & Civic Center when the event begins at 1 p.m. Businessman Eddie Rispone and Congressman Ralph Abraham, the two GOP gubernatorial candidates, will join him at the event.
The Republican Party of Louisiana is touting the event as a way to boose engagement on the last day of early voting.
Rispone and Abraham are challenging incumbent governor John Bel Edwards for the governor's mansion, but Edwards - the only Democratic governor in the deep south - has a commanding lead in the polls.
GOP officials are hoping Rispone and Abraham will be able to prevent Edwards from reaching 51% of the vote in the election. If he can't secure a majority, Edwards will face off against whoever gets second place in a runoff election on Nov. 16.
The latest polls of the race appear to show Edwards head and shoulders above either GOP candidate with 47% of the vote. Rispone trailed at 23% with Abraham at 17%.
As the race comes to a head, Rispone and Abraham continue to take shots at each other in ads and campaign messages, trying to raise doubts about the other candidate's political potency.
In one ad, Rispone attacked Abraham's congressional record, trying to paint him as out of step with the president and the national GOP party.
A response ad from Abraham called his Republican opponent "desperate" and claimed he was lying to voters.
Pence will likely not endorse one candidate over the other for fear of alienating hardcore supporters of the other candidate ahead of the election. President Donald Trump took a similar approach in a tweet earlier this month, calling on voters in Louisiana to vote for one of the Republicans without endorsing either.
Analysts predict a runoff would be a much closer race.
The convention center is located at 4545 Williams Blvd., Kenner, LA 70065.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the latest polls have Edwards at 47%, Abraham at 24% and Rispone at 16%.
The story has been updated to reflect that, as of the publication of this article, the most recent polls from September 27 have Edwards at 47%, Rispone in second with 23% and Abraham in third with 17%.