‘Conservative’ Democrat Ekes Out Victory in Louisiana Governor’s Race

A comparatively conservative Democrat eked out a narrow victory in Lousiana’s gubernatorial election on Saturday night. Incumbent Governor John Bel Edwards was barely re-elected in a narrow victory over Republican challenger Eddie Rispone.

As of Saturday night Edwards had a lead of just over 20,000 votes, a margin that is far from decisive, especially for an incumbent governor. Donald Trump had campaigned for Edwards’ challenger, Eddie Rispone.

While Edwards is a member of the Democratic Party, his policy alignments reflect that of a moderate or conservative rarely seen in the modern-day far-left liberal Democratic Party. Edwards is at least somewhat pro-life, having endorsed restrictions on late term abortions.

The sitting governor signed a six-week heartbeat bill into law, going further than many Republicans in legislating pro-life values.

In campaign ads, the sitting governor appeared reminiscent of a conservative Republican by wholeheartedly shoring up his support for gun rights.

Progressive and liberal commentators will try to frame Edwards’ extremely narrow victory as a sign of an incumbent blue wave in 2020, but it’s anything but. Almost none of the radical progressives Democrats are bound to nominate for statewide offices across the country will come close to the seemingly conservative or genuinely moderate positions Edwards espouses.

Democrats can learn from Edwards’ victory by making concessions to cultural conservatives on the vital issues of gun right and pro-life values, but they won’t. It’s almost guaranteed that the Democratic nominee for President in 2020 will be even more radical in support of unrestricted abortion and eroding American gun rights than ever before.

 

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