By Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator
The Louisiana Republican Party endorsed one of Attorney General Jeff Landry’s top deputies, Liz Murrill, in the race to replace him, the party announced Thursday.
“With a new governor, legislature, and attorney general, we will have an opportunity to bring true conservative reform to state government,” Murrill said in a press release. “Now is the time for Republicans to come together. When we stand together, we win.”
The party endorsed Murrill over fellow Republican candidates, state Rep. John Stefanski of Crowley and former West Baton Rouge prosecutor Marty Maley.
A majority of the Republican State Central Committee backed Murrill, according to a press release from the state party. She then received the unanimous support of the party’s executive committee.
But no endorsement vote was taken on the attorney general race, said Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central. Instead, the state committee members sent in signed documents to GOP leadership indicating which candidates they backed.
The committee members have discussed putting a more transparent endorsement process in place, but the party hasn’t adopted formal rules over the last decade, Ivey said.
“It does a disservice to the party and to the public, in that there’s no actual vetting of candidates,” Ivey said. “It’s just ask for a signature, get a signature, collect enough and bada bing bada boom.”
All three GOP candidates for attorney general have campaigned as tough-on-crime candidates, but Murrill has differentiated herself by emphasizing her work with Landry on more than three dozen lawsuits against the Biden administration. She also defended Louisiana’s abortion laws before the U.S. Supreme Court and fought federal COVID-19 mitigation protocols.
The official GOP endorsement allows Murrill to raise money more easily with the state party’s help and receive support from the Republican Attorneys General Association.