Trump’s re-election chances seem low with loss in Republican-leaning state

Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana won re-election on Saturday against a Republican challenger. This win is expected to signify a political blow to President Donald Trump as he visited the state on several occasions to support the Republican candidate. Some predict that the president’s re-election next year is facing difficulty as the Democratic victory on Saturday came in right after the failure of the president’s support for a Republican candidate in the Kentucky governor’s race.

According to The New York Times (NYT), incumbent Democratic governor of Louisiana Edwards narrowly won against former businessman Republican candidate Eddie Rispone 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent of the vote. It is unusual for a Democratic governor to achieve re-election in the conservative Deep South.

The NYT said the recent election was “a hard loss for Trump.” President Trump campaigned for the Republican by visiting the state twice on November 6 and 14. He also encouraged voting for Rispone by tweeting, “LOUISIANA, VOTE @EddieRispone TODAY! He will be a great governor!,” and “He (Rispone) will get your taxes and auto insurance (highest in Country!) way down.”

The reason behind the president’s heavy involvement in Louisiana is because the Republican Party’s election results have been rather underwhelming and this was the first regional election after the public hearing on the president’s impeachment began. The GOP lost to the Democratic Party in three states out of four elections on November 5. Kentucky, which is a heavily Republican state, conceded the governor position to a Democratic candidate, and Republicans, a swing state, also lost control of both chambers of the state legislature in Virginia for the first time since 1993 with a huge victory by Democrats.


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com