FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2022
BATON ROUGE, LA— The Republican Party of Louisiana today formally announced its endorsement of Jeff Landry for Governor. The announcement comes after a majority of the elected 230-person governing body of the party, the Republican State Central Committee, endorsed Landry’s candidacy and the Executive Committee approved the endorsement in a near unanimous vote.
"Jeff Landry is a strong leader ready to transform Louisiana. Jeff’s conservative vision for our state is one of job creation, better schools, safer streets, and raising expectations of state government,” LAGOP Chairman Louis Gurvich said. "The Republican Party of Louisiana proudly endorses Jeff Landry and urges all Louisiana Republicans to unite and support his candidacy.”
"When our party is united, we win, and our party is united behind Jeff Landry," stated Chairman Gurvich. “Our elected governing body sent a resounding message of support for Jeff by endorsing him in an impressive effort where a strong majority of our members spoke very clearly. We will flip the Governor's Mansion next year in Louisiana with Jeff Landry as our candidate," Gurvich said.
Gurvich also addressed recent media stories that incorrectly reported on the endorsement and got their facts wrong. “We know the liberal media is going to do everything they can to smear our party and attack Jeff Landry. Many of the reports on this endorsement were fake news that were based on leaks and bad information. This endorsement was the result of the majority of our two hundred plus elected members taking action and choosing to endorse Jeff. This process was covered by the media, and our members were sent numerous communications by those leading the endorsement effort. Others who are crying over this endorsement are just upset because they didn’t have the support within our party to win get the endorsement for themselves,” he said.
Jeff Landry expressed gratitude to the elected party leaders for trusting him to lead the Republican Party to victory.
"I have proven my commitment to our conservative principles, and my desire to bring people together to make our state a better place to live. As Governor, I will fight every day to make that a reality in Louisiana. Having the official endorsement of our party is a big deal, and it means we can combine forces and grow a campaign and party infrastructure across this state. We've watched our neighboring states thrive because conservatives were elected as Governor. United, our party will have that same success,” Attorney General Jeff Landry said.
The elected LAGOP State Central Committee has a long history of endorsing candidates via this process. This endorsement procedure has also been used to endorse previous candidates for US Senator, Congress and legislature. The party first created an endorsement procedure for statewide offices during the 1970's with the help of party elders like former Chairman William Nungesser who wisely wanted a framework for limiting the risk of having multiple Republican candidates seeking the same office and ultimately splitting their vote.
In 2015 and 2019, Democrats won the state’s highest office as the GOP fractured between candidates. Efforts to solve this dilemma by creating a closed primary election were strongly supported by party officials and many Republican legislators, but the Louisiana Legislature has failed to act.
The LAGOP is energized and will hit the ground running to help Republican candidates up and down the ticket in 2023. In the weeks and months to come, we will be opening LAGOP Victory offices across the state to provide resources to local Republican campaigns and volunteers.
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"So much is at stake in this next election. We saw the mess of the last two election cycles, where Republicans were divided and lost. The Republican Party is getting it right this time by rallying around Jeff's campaign. Committee members know we don't have time to wait for others to selfishly kick tires and float trial balloons. Jeff is the only person who’s shown the courage enter the race while others appeared to be waiting for the better deal. We need someone who is ready to go all in for our state."
-MISTI CORDELL
Member of the Republican State Central Committee
“I’m so glad our party is learning from its mistakes. We must be united to win, and Jeff Landry is the right candidate to unite behind. No one will outwork him, and no one has proven himself more to our party. The State Central Committee, the Chairman, and the Executive Committee deserve much credit for this decision.”
-WILLIAM P. MILLS, III
Former LAGOP Finance Chairman
“For decades, Republican volunteers have poured countless hours into winning elections. Unifying the party means we will spend time building momentum instead of wasting energy on nasty attacks that only benefit Democrats. Republicans are uniting behind Jeff Landry because they want to win and they want a strong conservative as Governor.”
-JESSIE MORTON, Former Chairwoman
Louisiana Federation of Republican Women
