In essence, Louisiana’s Senate, one Board of Elementary and Secondary Education spot, and two Public Service Commission posts have been settled, resulting with arguably little in the way of conservative advancement.
That’s not because Republicans won’t triumph in all of these contests come November. That basically was set in stone upon qualifying, with first the party primaries of May 16 and then the ensuing runoffs Jun. 27 setting the exact field. Who gained the respective nominations mattered to determine the advancement of conservatism.
For the Senate, Rep. Julia Letlow’s win over GOP Treas. John Fleming hardly will cause an ideological ripple, if actually regress slightly from conservatism. Her lifetime voting record is actually slightly more moderate than that of who she and Fleming vanquished in the primary and who she replaces, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, although both are to the political right roughly equidistant between centrism and perfect conservatism. Fleming’s record in Congress, by contrast, was much further to the right.
The BESE contest ratified the GOP’s Anh “Joseph” Cao, a gubernatorial appointee, into finishing the term. This also probably is a wash, as in his short time in office Cao has voted reliably reformist as he did his recent elected predecessors.
As for the PSC races, these also prove to be a wash, but in a different way. District 5 contests for each major party nomination were settled in May, with Republican Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins then advancing for a sure win in November against Democrat Shreveport City Councilor James Green. Atkins will promote significantly greater conservative policy than outgoing Democrat Commissioner Foster Campbell, who uncritically sympathized with renewable energy sources and acted with undeserved punitiveness towards energy providers. Still, Campbell, the last white liberal populist elected to a statewide office, didn’t let ideology overwhelm reality in his voting behavior, unlike the other Democrat on the PSC, Davante Lewis.
However, and problematically, the outcome of the District 1 race represents a step backwards. Set to replace the solid conservatism and climate realism of the GOP’s Eric Skrmetta, Republican state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty by her legislative voting record at best is a wild card for conservatism. Perhaps the least conservative member of the House, she defeated in the primary round the much more conservative GOP state Rep. Mark Wright, then in the runoff the somewhat more conservative former Jefferson Parish Pres. John Young.
Although in recent years she’s barely cast more conservative/reform votes than liberal/populist ones in the lower house, perhaps as a hopeful sign for conservatives she has generally hewed to a climate realist attitude in votes on that subset of issues. Still, compared with Skrmetta’s informed reliability, unless she establishes a solid track record of conservatism off the bat conservatives would be forgiven for being nervous about her service. As such, the gain registered by Atkins’ upcoming win could be offset by her looming victory over a pair of weak candidates.
All in all, this means in Louisiana for the 2026 cycle little conservative progress – aside, of course, from upcoming U.S. House elections that overwhelmingly likely will send an additional Republican to Congress at the expense of Democrats, a definite move in the direction of greater conservatism.
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