BY: PIPER HUTCHINSON – The Louisiana Illuminator
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin is among the senior staff hires Gov.-elect Jeff Landry’s transition team announced Thursday.
Ardoin, who was first elected Secretary of State in 2018, will be Landry’s director of intergovernmental relations. Ardoin decided not to seek re-election and will be replaced by his chief deputy, Nancy Landry.
Other key hires are long-term Landry allies, many of whom worked under Landry during his tenure as attorney general.
Kyle Ruckert, Landry’s transition director, will become his chief of staff. Ruckert previously served as chief of staff to former U.S. Sen. David Vitter and led his unsuccessful bid for governor in 2015.
Angelique Freel, currently director of the Louisiana Department of Justice Civil Division, will serve as Landry’s executive counsel. While at the LDOJ, Freel was often tapped by Landry to handle controversial issues pertaining to COVID-19, abortion and a lawsuit against a reporter for The Advocate who sought pubic records related to a Landry staffer accused of sexual harassment.
Other former Vitter staffers joining the administration are Kate Kelly, who will be director of communications, and Lance Maxwell, a current assistant attorney general who will become Landry’s legislative director.
Landry’s policy team will be led by longtime aide Millard Mulé and John Kay, who previously served as Landry’s deputy campaign manager and as vice president for advocacy at the Pelican Institute, a conservative advocacy group.
Incoming First Lady Sharon Landry’s chief of staff will be Elise Cazes, who also worked under Landry at the attorney general’s office.