Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke Governor Race 1991

Not alive so I can’t say, but it’s a sad commentary in LA politics that the better candidate won and that candidate was Edwin fricking Edwards

Vote For The Crook. It’s Important!

I remember running into a friends mother in a bank. I told her that some were predicting a run off with these two. She almost fainted. She was a Republican grand dame. She held her nose and voted for Edwards. As did so many of us. There was a bumper sticker that said,”Vote for the Crook. It’s important!”

It was bizarre watching SNL make fun of a state-level race, especially in the South.

Felt to me like Louisiana was scrapping the bottom of the barrel. The KKK racist vs the La Gov who a few years later would be convicted and sent to prison. Edwards served as governor over a 24 year period...1972-80/84-88/92-96 I'm just glad Ronald Reagan was elected President and even though it was toward the end of his second term I always believed the popularity of Reagan was the x factor that helped Roemer defeat Edwards who was running for re election. But Louisiana was hurt and embarrassed when Duke edged out Roemer for the Republican nomination and Roemer's bid for a second term. Edwards saw his chance to get back into office because of the Duke candidacy. It also revealed how weak the sitting governor, Roemer had become...losing the nomination to Duke, who ran as the Republican.

Honestly, there was no choice. If you voted for a guy who thought it was cool to give speeches in a Nazi uniform in college and never changed his views, I sincerely hope your soul has changed. There was no choice in that election.

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People that were alive during this, what was that experience like?

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Surreal. Edwards was running ads with footage of Duke leading a cross burning. Duke paid for air time to try to explain away his past. It came off as completely phony of course, because he is still a racist to this day. Edwards was a known corrupt official. It was the textbook example of voting for the lesser of two evils.

Edwards also blasted Duke with one of his infamous zingers: "The only thing we have in common is we’re both wizards under the sheets."

I still have my David Duke for Governor t shirt stuffed away in the back of my closet. Thought it might be a collectors item one day.

I remember driving down I-10 from BR to Lafayette the weekend of the first open primary election and, after seeing a lot of Duke signs, thinking for the first time that he would get in the run off.

From what I remember of some that said they would vote for him, it was an anti-establishment, protest vote. They were just fed up with things and wanted to “send a message”. That was a helluva stupid message that’s for sure.