By Greg LaRose | Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana has been a Republican stronghold for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until July 1 that GOP voters officially outnumbered Democrats for the first time in state history.
Republican Party leaders say the data finally reflect the state’s decided conservative lean, but a top Democratic official says his party’s declining numbers are evidence of a campaign to remove their members from voter rolls.
That’s a false claim, according to a spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry, the state’s top elections official. Her canvassing efforts identified nearly a half-million inactive voters earlier this year, but they have not been removed from voter rolls, spokesman Trey Williams said in an email.
It’s likely Republicans had already grabbed their edge heading into the June 27 party runoffs, when they propelled U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow to the November election against Democrat Jamie Davis. The Secretary of State updates its voter registration figures on the first of each month, and the July tally showed 1.064 million Republicans to 1.062 million Democrats.
Louisiana party registration
July 1
Democrat 1,062,135
Republican 1,064,496
No party 820,040
One year ago
Democrat 1,095,236
Republican 1,049,536
Other 834,705
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State
A month earlier, Democrats held a 702-voter advantage over Republicans, who now have 1,606 more registered members. The change is more pronounced over the past 12 months, with Republicans gaining nearly 15,000 voters and Democrats losing more than 33,000.
“Louisiana has been voting red and voting conservative for years now, election cycle after election cycle, and it’s great to see that our voter registration finally reflects the way the state has been voting for several years now,” said Cory Dennis, Louisiana Republican Party executive director.
After more than a century of Democratic dominance, Republicans took control of the Louisiana Legislature after the 2011 elections and gained a super-majority in both chambers three years ago. The GOP also completed the party trifecta, holding governor’s seat during the second term of Bobby Jindal and again with the election of Jeff Landry in 2023, with Democrat John Bel Edwards separating them from 2016-2024.
Republicans hope to strengthen their grip on Louisiana politics with this year’s return to party primaries, though unaffiliated voters were allowed to choose which party’s ballot they completed in the May and June elections for U.S. Senate, state school board and Louisiana Public Service Commission.
In 2024, the governor and legislative leadership voted to end the state’s open “jungle” primaries for congressional races and some select state-level seats. The old system put candidates from all parties in the primary, and the top two vote-getters advanced to a runoff.
The implementation of closed primaries was delayed until this year, but still in time to create an uphill path for U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy to retain his seat. Pro-Trump Republicans in Louisiana marked the incumbent for removal after his vote to convict the president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The GOP-driven move to party primaries, and Louisiana ending its official recognition of the Independent Party, are not necessarily the driving forces behind the boost in Republican voters, Dennis said. Rather, he credits the governor and President Trump for the higher numbers.
“I think people are just finally saying … ‘I’m a Republican, and I want people to know that I’m Republican,’” he said, “and I think that confidence they’re getting is because they’re seeing what conservative leadership can produce.”
The decrease in Democrats was not a surprise to Dadrius Lanus, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. He said Secretary of State Nancy Landry (not related to the governor) has for the past two years declared Democrats as “inactive” voters over Republicans at a rate of 10:1.
Williams, the secretary of state’s spokesman, did not provide specific numbers to refute Lanus’ purge claims, but said the review of voter rolls has been party-neutral. Inactive voters — those without any voting or voter registration activity for at least 10 years — were given that status after being sent an address confirmation notice, he said. They were not removed from voter rolls and can retain their active status by responding to the notice, updating their registration or presenting their ID when voting, according to Williams.
“Voters need to understand that inactive does not mean ineligible,” he said.
Lanus was also reluctant to attribute the Republican gains or Democratic losses to Louisiana’s switch to party primaries, which he said was part of the GOP’s “elaborate plan to get rid of Bill Cassidy, more or less.”
Both major parties should acknowledge the recent increase in no-party voters — nearly 1,000 from June to July — because they could constitute a “swing vote” in contested Louisiana elections, he said.
Ahead of the November elections, Lanus said the Louisiana’s Democratic Party’s goal is to register 30,000 voters as it campaigns statewide for Davis in the U.S. Senate race and its candidates in the six U.S. House races.
“There’s no way in the world we can sit on the sidelines and not be prepared for what’s ahead,” Lanus said.
Dennis also said it’s not time for the Louisiana GOP to grow complacent, with less than a tenth of a percentage point out of the state’s 2.95 million voters separating the two major parties.
“We want to widen that margin as much as we can get it,” he said.