‘Certainly not surprised:’ Gov. Edwards discusses Landry’s big win during his call-in radio show

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - During one of his last call-in radio shows Wednesday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards talked about last Saturday’s election results.

He also ensured that the transition would be very ‘’smooth and robust’ for incoming Governor-elect Jeff Landry, as his term winds down in about two and a half months.

“Obviously I pay attention to polling and so forth, so certainly not surprised that Jeff Landry is the governor-elect,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), on ‘Ask the Governor’ with Jim Engster on WRKF.

Just days after Saturday’s landslide election win for Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, Edwards said he was disappointed fellow Democrat Shawn Wilson came up short.

“I was for Shawn Wilson and genuinely believed he was the best candidate in the race and so forth. But not surprised. A little bit surprised that it happened in the primary as opposed to in the general election. I just didn’t see such a low turnout, especially in areas critically important to Shawn. I didn’t see the other candidates in the field getting as few votes as they did collectively, but the election is over. I congratulated Jeff on Sunday and we are going to have a very smooth and robust transition. And we are going to provide all of the information that we wish we had when we came into office, and to facilitate good communications and information exchange. So, I congratulate him again today on the air and look forward to working with him through the transition. As you all know, I’m a Louisianan. I’m staying in Louisiana, I wish him well, I want him to do a really good job. because this is where and my family live, and certainly I love our state. And I appreciate the opportunity I’ve had, but the constitution and the First Lady limit my service to eight years, and that’s about to wrap up in January, and we’re going to go on home. And I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my life as well,” said Gov. Edwards on his radio show.

“It was a great victory, in fact I think it was a historic victory. You’re just not going to see this very often. I would say the stars aligned, we had a great candidate, a fantastic candidate,” said Louis Gurvich, LAGOP Chairman.

Louisiana GOP Chairman Louis Gurvich spoke with WAFB’s Lester Duhe’ about the election results and this transition period as well.

He also reacted to the lowest voter turnout in 20 years.

“I think Republican turnout was somewhere between good and at least average. I think it is true that democrat turnout was low, and you have to ask yourself why. There was a certain apathy and a dis-spiritedness in the campaign, I don’t think they had a bad candidate. I think Shawn Wilson was not a bad representative of the Democratic Party,” said Gurvich.

Gurvich said he believed AG Landry had at least a chance at winning the election outright in the primary.

“He ran a fine campaign, good messaging, very disciplined, did all the things right, and the success shows in the pudding,” said Gurvich.

The governor was asked about the source of division between himself and the attorney general.

“I genuinely believe that I tried very hard to govern from the center, I think that’s where most Louisianans are, slightly right of center, but clustered towards the center. I do believe Jeff’s (Landry) instincts take him further to the right, on just about every issue. And so there’s obviously going to be just some built-in differences of opinion there and differences of philosophy, and I think that’s what’s been in play over the last eight years,” said Gov. Edwards.

Edwards expressed his hope for the state’s next leader.

“I do do hope he will govern in a way that is more consistent with the campaign he ran, as opposed to the way he actually conducted himself as attorney general over the last 8 years,” said Gov. Edwards.

It was also announced Wednesday, that Republican State Senator Cameron henry of Metairie will most likely be the next State Senate President.

Governor Edwards’ term is up on January 8.

To listen to the full ‘Ask the Governor’ radio show click here.

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