In a pointed preview of Louisiana’s high-stakes Senate fight, three Democrats took the stage Tuesday in Baton Rouge and spent an hour carving out an alternative to the Trump-backed Republican field vying for Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat.
Nick Albares, Gary Crockett and Jamie Davis shared a Southern University stage on April 21, pitching voters on voting rights protections, Medicaid and tax plans they say would make life more affordable for Louisiana families.
The forum was held at Southern’s Leon R. Tarver II Cultural and Heritage Center as part of a statewide “To The People, For The People” roadshow designed to give voters a side-by-side look at candidates. According to Indivisible Baton Rouge, organizers included 10,000 Women Louisiana, The Bayou Progressive and local Indivisible chapters.
Who They Are
Nick Albares is a nonprofit executive and former adviser to Gov. John Bel Edwards who has worked in Southeast Louisiana with Volunteers of America. Albares told voters his “political philosophy is simple: I believe that every person is important. every person has dignity,” as reported by NOLA.
Jamie Davis is a third-generation row-crop farmer from Waterproof who served one term on the Tensas Parish Police Jury, and Gary Crockett is a retired U.S. Navy veteran and business owner. KNOE lists the three as Democratic qualifiers and notes that Davis farms roughly 3,200 acres in northeast Louisiana.
The Issues They Raised
Onstage the candidates labeled recent voting restrictions “voter suppression” and called for billionaires to pay more in taxes to fund what they cast as an affordability agenda. That platform includes federal investment in child care and protections against landlord price gouging. They also urged reversing planned Medicaid cuts, criticized aggressive immigration enforcement and pushed for stronger support for renewable energy, according to NOLA.
Where Republicans Stand And The Calendar
On the other side of the aisle, President Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Julia Letlow has reshaped the GOP primary and increased pressure on Cassidy, CBS News reported.
The May 16 primary is Louisiana’s first closed-party contest in this cycle, with early voting scheduled May 2 through 9 and a June 27 runoff if no one wins a majority, according to voter guides. The Democrats onstage said that calendar shift makes turnout and organizing their immediate priorities.
Why It Matters
No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race in Louisiana since Mary Landrieu’s 2008 victory, so the party’s immediate task is rebuilding infrastructure and crafting a message that can scale statewide, according to Wikipedia.
Political watchers say Cassidy’s vulnerability and intra-GOP splits have turned Louisiana’s primary into one of the cycle’s more intriguing contests, a dynamic explored in recent coverage on the Cassidy RFK Jr cage match.
The “To The People, For The People” roadshow will continue around the state, and organizers said the Baton Rouge forum was livestreamed by The Bayou Progressive. With early voting days away, both parties will soon find out whether all this grassroots energy turns into measurable turnout on May 16.
