It's the mid-term elections' final stretch, and President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a video link-up at a Julia Letlow for Senate rally tonight.
Louisiana has been a solidly Republican state for more than a decade. You would have to go back to 2008 for the last time a Democrat won a U.S. Senate election here.
"Given the fact that Donald Trump won Louisiana with 60 percent of the vote in the last presidential election, it's somewhat surprising that he decided to make an appearance here to mobilize the vote," says LSU political science professor Robert Hogan.
Hogan says Republicans in purple states would rather Mr. Trump stay away.
"A lot of the Republican candidates running in these tight races have not mentioned Donald Trump very much, and that is a function of his high disapproval across the country," Hogan said.
And given the president's proclivity to make campaign appearances more about himself than about the candidate on whose behalf he is appearing, plays right into the opposition's hands in purple states.
"It's in the competitive states and districts where Donald Trump's brand can be toxic for Republicans," Hogan explains, "and so they've not wanted to mention him very much, whereas Democrats want to talk about him all the time these days."
Hogan says it also shows that Republicans still believe Louisiana is safe for them, and they want to keep it that way.
