- Pronouns
- he/they is fine
The 1975 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held to elect the Governor of Louisiana. Incumbent Democratic Governor Dave Treen was eligible to run for a second consecutive term but chose not to run for re-election, and as such an "open" election was held. Parti Franco-Américain candidate Edwin Edwards was defeated by former governor Joe Waggoner of the Democratic Party, who became the first Louisiana governor to serve nonconsecutive terms since Jimmie Davis. The elections were referred to as "the most in American history" by historian Newt Gingrich, and also made it into the Guinness Book of Records under a similar title as the most fraudulent election ever reported in US history, as the total vote in the general election exceeded the amount of registered voters in Louisiana. [1]
The election was originally seen as a so-called referendum on the conservative Democratic Party machine of Louisiana, which had been in power since the end of Reconstruction. However, the power of Southern Democratic machines had been slightly shrunken following the presidency of fellow conservative Southern Democrat Orval Faubus, who's presidency had seen a slight rise in Civil Rights advances for African-Americans. As such, the African-American voting population nearly doubled across the south, although it still only represented about 3% of the total black population in the south. Still, some people, particularly northern liberals, saw this as an opportunity to help beat back some of the Southern Democratic machines, forming the so-called "Coalition for A Southern Opposition", which sought to unite various opposition groups in the south against the Democrats.
Louisiana was seen as the perfect location for this strategy, as the state had a newly-created runoff system, making it easier for an "Opposition" fusion ticket to form, and the state had a large number of French and Cajun-Americans from both Louisiana's long history of French ties and due to the fact that the state had seen a large growth of French immigrants in the 1930s and 1940s to the Southeastern portion of the state. It is with this that the "Opposition Party of Louisiana" (which wasn't really a party but more of an attempt to use ballot fusion to symbolize which candidates truly opposed the Southern machines), found their first candidate, Edwin Edwards. Edwards was an Cajun ex-Louisiana state legislator who had been present at the founding of the Association Française (the predecessor to the Parti Franco-Américain) in 1967, and had supported the PFA in their earliest elections in the Northeast before eventually getting tired of the Democratic Party and attempting to win re-election as an independent in 1973, only losing by 0.48%, largely due to some amount of machine politics in the area. However, he announced a run for Governor as a member of the PFA in 1975, hoping to spread the party to Louisiana and some portions of Texas, who had large numbers of both Cajuns and ex-French immigrants. He also did so with the hope of uniting the two groups, who had often been separated due to language and class differences.
The second candidate to gain support from the "Opposition Party" was actually an ex-machine member by the name of Charles E. Roemer, or as he was more famously known as, "Budgie". Roemer had once served as Louisiana's Secretary of State, but he had feuded with state leadership, and ended up being primaried out before having a political comeback as mayor of Shreveport, becoming a strange liberal in the Louisiana Democratic Party. Roemer announced a run largely due to the fact that Conservative Democrats (backed by the Faubus-formed United Southern Conservative Alliance), had already seemingly fallen behind a candidate in ex-governor Joe Waggoner, who Roemer declared was "the most dishonest person I've ever met". Roemer and Edwards ran a strange sort of "joint campaign", where they pretty much didn't attack each other with the shared goal of getting to the second round. Roemer largely ran in the northern portions of the state, while Edwards ran in the southwestern more Cajun portion. The only place where either candidate's campaigns overlapped was New Orleans, and even there they were both very cordial with each other. Along with Roemer and Edwards there were two other "Opposition" candidates, Republican activist Francis Grevemberg, and Socialist Leon Waters. Both candidates failed to make much of an impact and actually fell behind Klansman and perennial candidate Addison Thompson, who ran an independent campaign garnering nearly 5% of the vote.
As for the Conservative Democrats, nominating Waggonner was a "no-brainer". The man had been quite popular in his time as governor of Louisiana, and became even more so following his position as Secretary of Rural Development under president Faubus. Many people predicted that he'd win the first round with at least 60% of the vote, and even beat Edwards among Cajuns, as Waggonner had been seen as a "friend to Cajuns" as Secretary of Rural Development due to his efforts to increase development of Cajun areas in Southwestern Louisiana and his calls to Secretary of Education Joseph Huot to keep Cajun schools around. It was expected that the only groups he'd lose were first/second/third-generation French immigrants and black voters, who both generally disliked Waggonner during his time as governor. However, due to the fact that black voters were nearly non-existent, and that first/second/third-generation French immigrants likely only made up around 7% of the electorate, it seemed he'd escape with a solid victory in the first round.
However, as the campaign went on, Waggonner's massive lead began to crumble. First of all, Waggonner barely campaigned, which contrasted him with both Edwards and Roemer, who spent millions on advertisements and who both criss-crossed the state talking to voters, causing many to think that Roemer was actually the official Democratic candidate. Second of all, Roemer managed to get the endorsement of former governor Jimmie Davis, who was immensely popular in the state, and who had also faced problems with the state machine due to his primary defeat to Treen in 1971, and who had been close with Roemer during his time as Secretary of State. Third of all, Edwards had been able to successfully unite Cajuns and French immigrants into a united camp, largely due to a massive outreach program and his beliefs staying much more in line with the French population while his mannerisms and background were much more in line with the Cajuns. This unification severely hurt Waggonner's push into Cajun voting populations, and as such Edwards began rocketing up into the polls.
On the day of the runoff, Waggonner disappointed early expectations and only finished with 43% of the vote while Edwards ended up pulling ahead of Roemer by about 7% to make it to the second round. Edward's "victory" was largely caused by him having a much more united and enthusiastic base, while Roemer had a much less stable base. Still, Roemer, along with Grevemberg and (very reluctantly) Waters endorsed Edwards with the hopes of breaking down the Southern Machine.
The runoff between Waggonner and Edwards would go down as one of the ugliest in political history. With Waggonner learning his lesson from the first round, he unleashed massive amounts of attack ads on Edwards, utilizing millions of dollars from the Democratic National Committee who didn't really have any other competitive races to worry about that year, and taking a much harder shift to the right. Waggonner, deciding that Southwestern Louisiana was a lost cause ran hard to the right to regain some of his losses to Roemer in the Southeast and North. While doing so he often utilized heavy amounts of racism and stereotypes towards Cajuns, and was even seen campaigning with Addison Thompson, who did quite well in the northern portion of the state. Not only that but he gained Jimmie Davis's endorsement back, as Davis stated that he feared that Edward's "Francocentric" campaign would unnecessarily divide Louisianans. While Waggonner went hard to the right, often using anti-Cajun stereotypes and racist slurs towards Edwards, Edwards joined him on the right wing, while also telling people that Waggonner wanted to divide Louisiana into two states, while he wanted to unite it. Both candidates attacked each other brutally, and it was an incredibly expensive campaign as well, arguably the most expensive in Louisiana history when adjusting for inflation. However, the campaign itself didn't matter as much, as the election was decided more by various forms of voter intimidation, voter fraud, vote-buying, destruction of ballots, and general corruption, all of which were reported by both sides. Waggonner, who had more experience in this, and with the Democrats holding the Secretary of State's office, had the natural advantage, and ended up winning off of it. However, Edwards' campaign also committed heavy amounts of illegal activities, particularly in New Orleans. This resulted in a victory in New Orleans by about ~500 votes, while Edwards lost the rest of the state in a landslide margin, albeit one where the total vote added up to about 4,000 more than the actual number of registered voters.
The open corruption of the election resulted in an attempt to overturn or challenge it by Republicans and their allies in congress, however, the ruling Democratic coalition blocked any attempt at an investigation of the election, which became a major issue in the 1976 elections. However, the long-term effect of the election is still being felt in Louisiana today. Following the election, Edwards, acknowledging that he would likely be unable to defeat the Democrats in a statewide election, began what was called the "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the Democrats and the PFA. Edwards (who returned to the Louisiana state house) and his party would stay out of the Democrats way on most issues, effectively becoming a sort of controlled opposition, in return for massive amounts of pork extended to French areas in the state. The agreement effectively killed the Opposition Party of Louisiana, however, it caused large progressive strides to be made both in Southwestern Louisiana and in the state at-large, as Southwestern Louisiana's poverty rates dropped while the French and Cajun languages were heavily promoted, and Edwards' growing activism for black voters caused Louisiana to have the highest black voting populations in the south. (which is a pretty low bar, as only about 40% of voting-eligible African-Americans are registered to vote in Louisiana) In his older age (Edwards is pushing 100 and still kicking), Edwards has become increasingly radical, both in his renewed support for a "United Opposition", and as he's begun to propose Southwestern Louisiana secession, and there's actual hope that an opposition candidate could win in 2023.
The election was originally seen as a so-called referendum on the conservative Democratic Party machine of Louisiana, which had been in power since the end of Reconstruction. However, the power of Southern Democratic machines had been slightly shrunken following the presidency of fellow conservative Southern Democrat Orval Faubus, who's presidency had seen a slight rise in Civil Rights advances for African-Americans. As such, the African-American voting population nearly doubled across the south, although it still only represented about 3% of the total black population in the south. Still, some people, particularly northern liberals, saw this as an opportunity to help beat back some of the Southern Democratic machines, forming the so-called "Coalition for A Southern Opposition", which sought to unite various opposition groups in the south against the Democrats.
Louisiana was seen as the perfect location for this strategy, as the state had a newly-created runoff system, making it easier for an "Opposition" fusion ticket to form, and the state had a large number of French and Cajun-Americans from both Louisiana's long history of French ties and due to the fact that the state had seen a large growth of French immigrants in the 1930s and 1940s to the Southeastern portion of the state. It is with this that the "Opposition Party of Louisiana" (which wasn't really a party but more of an attempt to use ballot fusion to symbolize which candidates truly opposed the Southern machines), found their first candidate, Edwin Edwards. Edwards was an Cajun ex-Louisiana state legislator who had been present at the founding of the Association Française (the predecessor to the Parti Franco-Américain) in 1967, and had supported the PFA in their earliest elections in the Northeast before eventually getting tired of the Democratic Party and attempting to win re-election as an independent in 1973, only losing by 0.48%, largely due to some amount of machine politics in the area. However, he announced a run for Governor as a member of the PFA in 1975, hoping to spread the party to Louisiana and some portions of Texas, who had large numbers of both Cajuns and ex-French immigrants. He also did so with the hope of uniting the two groups, who had often been separated due to language and class differences.
The second candidate to gain support from the "Opposition Party" was actually an ex-machine member by the name of Charles E. Roemer, or as he was more famously known as, "Budgie". Roemer had once served as Louisiana's Secretary of State, but he had feuded with state leadership, and ended up being primaried out before having a political comeback as mayor of Shreveport, becoming a strange liberal in the Louisiana Democratic Party. Roemer announced a run largely due to the fact that Conservative Democrats (backed by the Faubus-formed United Southern Conservative Alliance), had already seemingly fallen behind a candidate in ex-governor Joe Waggoner, who Roemer declared was "the most dishonest person I've ever met". Roemer and Edwards ran a strange sort of "joint campaign", where they pretty much didn't attack each other with the shared goal of getting to the second round. Roemer largely ran in the northern portions of the state, while Edwards ran in the southwestern more Cajun portion. The only place where either candidate's campaigns overlapped was New Orleans, and even there they were both very cordial with each other. Along with Roemer and Edwards there were two other "Opposition" candidates, Republican activist Francis Grevemberg, and Socialist Leon Waters. Both candidates failed to make much of an impact and actually fell behind Klansman and perennial candidate Addison Thompson, who ran an independent campaign garnering nearly 5% of the vote.
As for the Conservative Democrats, nominating Waggonner was a "no-brainer". The man had been quite popular in his time as governor of Louisiana, and became even more so following his position as Secretary of Rural Development under president Faubus. Many people predicted that he'd win the first round with at least 60% of the vote, and even beat Edwards among Cajuns, as Waggonner had been seen as a "friend to Cajuns" as Secretary of Rural Development due to his efforts to increase development of Cajun areas in Southwestern Louisiana and his calls to Secretary of Education Joseph Huot to keep Cajun schools around. It was expected that the only groups he'd lose were first/second/third-generation French immigrants and black voters, who both generally disliked Waggonner during his time as governor. However, due to the fact that black voters were nearly non-existent, and that first/second/third-generation French immigrants likely only made up around 7% of the electorate, it seemed he'd escape with a solid victory in the first round.
However, as the campaign went on, Waggonner's massive lead began to crumble. First of all, Waggonner barely campaigned, which contrasted him with both Edwards and Roemer, who spent millions on advertisements and who both criss-crossed the state talking to voters, causing many to think that Roemer was actually the official Democratic candidate. Second of all, Roemer managed to get the endorsement of former governor Jimmie Davis, who was immensely popular in the state, and who had also faced problems with the state machine due to his primary defeat to Treen in 1971, and who had been close with Roemer during his time as Secretary of State. Third of all, Edwards had been able to successfully unite Cajuns and French immigrants into a united camp, largely due to a massive outreach program and his beliefs staying much more in line with the French population while his mannerisms and background were much more in line with the Cajuns. This unification severely hurt Waggonner's push into Cajun voting populations, and as such Edwards began rocketing up into the polls.
On the day of the runoff, Waggonner disappointed early expectations and only finished with 43% of the vote while Edwards ended up pulling ahead of Roemer by about 7% to make it to the second round. Edward's "victory" was largely caused by him having a much more united and enthusiastic base, while Roemer had a much less stable base. Still, Roemer, along with Grevemberg and (very reluctantly) Waters endorsed Edwards with the hopes of breaking down the Southern Machine.
The runoff between Waggonner and Edwards would go down as one of the ugliest in political history. With Waggonner learning his lesson from the first round, he unleashed massive amounts of attack ads on Edwards, utilizing millions of dollars from the Democratic National Committee who didn't really have any other competitive races to worry about that year, and taking a much harder shift to the right. Waggonner, deciding that Southwestern Louisiana was a lost cause ran hard to the right to regain some of his losses to Roemer in the Southeast and North. While doing so he often utilized heavy amounts of racism and stereotypes towards Cajuns, and was even seen campaigning with Addison Thompson, who did quite well in the northern portion of the state. Not only that but he gained Jimmie Davis's endorsement back, as Davis stated that he feared that Edward's "Francocentric" campaign would unnecessarily divide Louisianans. While Waggonner went hard to the right, often using anti-Cajun stereotypes and racist slurs towards Edwards, Edwards joined him on the right wing, while also telling people that Waggonner wanted to divide Louisiana into two states, while he wanted to unite it. Both candidates attacked each other brutally, and it was an incredibly expensive campaign as well, arguably the most expensive in Louisiana history when adjusting for inflation. However, the campaign itself didn't matter as much, as the election was decided more by various forms of voter intimidation, voter fraud, vote-buying, destruction of ballots, and general corruption, all of which were reported by both sides. Waggonner, who had more experience in this, and with the Democrats holding the Secretary of State's office, had the natural advantage, and ended up winning off of it. However, Edwards' campaign also committed heavy amounts of illegal activities, particularly in New Orleans. This resulted in a victory in New Orleans by about ~500 votes, while Edwards lost the rest of the state in a landslide margin, albeit one where the total vote added up to about 4,000 more than the actual number of registered voters.
The open corruption of the election resulted in an attempt to overturn or challenge it by Republicans and their allies in congress, however, the ruling Democratic coalition blocked any attempt at an investigation of the election, which became a major issue in the 1976 elections. However, the long-term effect of the election is still being felt in Louisiana today. Following the election, Edwards, acknowledging that he would likely be unable to defeat the Democrats in a statewide election, began what was called the "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the Democrats and the PFA. Edwards (who returned to the Louisiana state house) and his party would stay out of the Democrats way on most issues, effectively becoming a sort of controlled opposition, in return for massive amounts of pork extended to French areas in the state. The agreement effectively killed the Opposition Party of Louisiana, however, it caused large progressive strides to be made both in Southwestern Louisiana and in the state at-large, as Southwestern Louisiana's poverty rates dropped while the French and Cajun languages were heavily promoted, and Edwards' growing activism for black voters caused Louisiana to have the highest black voting populations in the south. (which is a pretty low bar, as only about 40% of voting-eligible African-Americans are registered to vote in Louisiana) In his older age (Edwards is pushing 100 and still kicking), Edwards has become increasingly radical, both in his renewed support for a "United Opposition", and as he's begun to propose Southwestern Louisiana secession, and there's actual hope that an opposition candidate could win in 2023.