Republicans react to state GOP endorsing Jeff Landry for Governor

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A big race that is still a year away is already making headlines. That’s because the state Republican party has already thrown their support behind a candidate before anyone else has announced they’re even running.

With about a year to go before the election, the LAGOP has endorsed current Attorney General Jeff Landry in the governor’s race. The Republican State Central Committee with all elected members was scheduled to have their quarterly meeting nine days ago.

“Which was apparently canceled, and the party says that there was a majority that wanted to endorse Landry. It’s kind of puzzling why they wouldn’t just have that meeting and vote to endorse him,” said former RSCC member and current EBR Secretary for the LAGOP, Scott Wilfong.

Wilfong says he’s worried about the Execute Committee’s move to endorse Landry last night in an exclusive meeting over zoom.

“I’m a Jeff Landry guy I think he’s a great Attorney General and may well support him for governor, but the timing and the process is a little suspect in my opinion,” Wilfong added.

We had a chance to get Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser reaction today. He’s another Republican expected to run for governor. He sees the move as a slap in the face to the party.

“They couldn’t rally the votes, they weren’t sure they could get an endorsement, I wasn’t even invited, so they cancelled it. This is the most despicable thing I’ve ever seen done in Louisiana politics, and it’s done by the party that my father helped build, shame on them,” said the Lt. Governor.

We asked him if this has changed his mind about running.

“You know when I ran for office, they said Billy you can’t win you only have 8,000 votes. Even my opponents said you can’t beat me. If this doesn’t light a fire under you nothing will. Nobody will ever out work me and this lights a fire under me,” the Lt. Governor continued.

“Billy Nungesser appears likely to run and he and Jeff Landry don’t like each other, a lot, so little wonder Billy Nungesser is worked up about this,” said Political Analyst Jim Engster.

Folks like Engster say these days a party endorsement is great, but the real ones to look out for are ones from our U.S. senators and congressmen.

“I suspect there will be more than two Republicans running, probably one from Washington as well. So, this is just an early chess move in a long game that will end on October 14th of next year,” Engster continued.

Another Republican who’s expected to run is state Treasurer John Schroeder. Next year’s battle for the governor’s mansion is still a long way off, but already raising eyebrows.

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