More evidence of the Landry effect – or, if you will, absence of the Edwards effect – surfaced with the release of Louisiana State University’s 2025 Louisiana Survey, which also may shed light upon the policy agenda of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
For many years now the survey has asked similar questions of participants, and this year’s results revealed a growing optimism not seen in several years. After hitting record levels, in the neighborhood of two-thirds, over the past three years of state residents saying the state was headed in the wrong direction, this March/April’s survey saw that number drop to parity with those opining the state was headed in the right direction. Internal numbers show the turnaround occurred because more numerous Republicans to a larger degree changed their minds (extrapolated; it’s not a panel construct but in statistical terms the aggregate results from different samples each year have a high likelihood of representativeness), even as Democrats to a somewhat lesser degree became more negative, plus respondents unaffiliated with either major party also turned more positive.
Largely the same dynamic was replicated in confidence in state government to address concerns. After hitting a high in Republican former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s first term, this slowly eroded, levelled off in the first term of Democrat former Gov. John Bel Edwards, then cratered during his second term before rebounding a bit in 2024 after Landry assumed office and shooting higher in 2025. Republicans’ views drove it up, while Democrats’ basically didn’t change.
This would be expected, given the policy output of state government in 2024. Led by Landry, the supermajority Republican Legislature tackled a wide range of issues, including all of the top four identified in the survey – economy, crime, education, and budget. As for that most important, the economy, consumer sentiment in the state, after running considerably lower than the nation’s public for years, in 2025 actually went higher.
This likely was aided by a policy agenda that fit nicely with the preferences of the public. The survey showed majority preferences for tax cuts, expanded educational choice, and use of capital punishment – all implemented by Republican-led government during 2024, as well as the results from a special legislative session on crime that made laws tougher on crime congruent with the survey majority’s view. And a slew of good economic news since Landry and legislators came into office would be expected to buoy respondents’ feelings about the economy, or the “Landry effect.”
As opposed to the “Edwards effect,” or the general malaise the state fell into during his terms in office as reflected in the survey’s results especially in his second term, a consequence of government that grew in size spectacularly, foisted net tax increases, and stalled efforts to tackle crime and to increase educational choice. This change of pace also is captured by the difference in quality of life determined by rating of Louisiana as a place to live, which shot up from 25 percent ranked in the two highest categories in 2024 to 46 percent in 2025.
Unquestionably according to an over-time view of these surveys, state residents feel much more positively under Landry than Edwards. What’s more, the survey results also point to why Landry, to the consternation of some conservatives in particular, may be governing as he has on a couple of issues.
Much has been made about how Landry has tried to thread a needle – the eyelet of which probably doesn’t exist – on the issue of vehicle insurance. Landry has said he represents a presumed middle way that strips some advantages in the legal code enjoyed by trial lawyers, but not to the extent some would like or are done in other states with significantly lower premiums, but also places more regulations on insurers that he claims reduces exploitative practices.
While the issue has generated more debate and controversy during the regular legislative session than any other, much of the public doesn’t think it’s all that important. Among their listing of the most important issue facing the state, insurance costs appear well down the list at only five percent of respondents saying it is. This would encourage Landry to continue talking about reform as a pox on all houses.
Some conservatives also fault Landry for doing too little to reduce government spending, in reference to his proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget that basically is standstill. But the survey also shows that while generally the public wants smaller government through tax cuts, within a list of several issues on none did a majority favor reduced spending. Again, there appears to be no great public outcry here, so on spending Landry may perceive a light appetite for it that translates into reduced emphasis on smaller government.
Thus, the survey provides an interesting look back as to how policy change transforms citizen attitudes, but can also deliver insight into future policy agendas.
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