Early voting in Louisiana is over, so voters have one more chance this Saturday to head to the polls to make their voices heard in the U.S. Senate runoffs.
The race getting the most attention has been on the Republican side, with Julia Letlow and John Fleming battling it out for the nomination.
LSU political science professor Robert Hogan says President Trump’s endorsement of Letlow could play an outsized role.
“The campaign really has mostly not been centered on a lot of issues that separate the candidates. A lot of it has still been about who is the strongest conservative and who is most supportive of Donald Trump,” Hogan said.
In the primary, Letlow finished 15 points ahead of Fleming, and a poll showing Letlow ahead by that margin since advancing to the runoff appeared to indicate that she was pulling away. But a recent poll commissioned by the Letlow campaign actually showed her trailing Fleming. Hogan says that’s proof that this is anyone’s contest.
“There are a lot of voters who had supported (Bill) Cassidy, who you would think would naturally go to the Letlow campaign; some of them haven’t made up their minds yet,” Hogan noted.
Hogan says while neither campaign delivered the proverbial knockout blow, one campaign committed a potentially fatal unforced error.
“The A.I. commercial that was magnified by the Fleming campaign, which had Letlow talking about her deceased husband; that was something that I think probably was not very beneficial for the Fleming campaign,” Hogan said.
On the Democratic side, former Tensas Parish police juror Jamie Davis is squaring off against Gary Crockett, who has never held elected office. Hogan says the winner of the Republican race will be the odds-on favorite to win the general election in November.
