Rep. Garrett Graves finally confirmed Tuesday that he wouldn’t run in this October’s all-party primary to succeed Louisiana’s termed-out governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards, but another Republican acknowledged he was considering joining what’s still a fluid race. Stephen Waguespack, who serves as president and CEO of the powerful Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, said later in the day that he “hope[s] to have a decision pretty soon.”
The Louisiana Illuminator’s Julie O'Donoghue reported the previous evening, though, that Waguespack told his board members he’d already made that decision and would announce his campaign Thursday. Graves, who is close to Waguespack, didn’t mention him in his statement, but he hinted his campaign announcement was coming by writing that “in the coming days, the field will brighten.” Another Republican, state House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, also said last week he’d consider a run if Graves passed.
Waguespack, writes O'Donoghue, could appeal to the same set of GOP donors who’d originally wanted Graves to run in order to stop Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry. The far-right Landry is the frontrunner, but O'Donoghue says the “Anybody but Jeff” group badly wants an alternative to a person they view as “too much of a hothead and too concerned about partisan issues to be an effective governor.”
The GOP side also includes Treasurer John Schroder, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, and state Rep. Richard Nelson, but none of them have emerged yet as Landry’s main intra-party rival. Indeed, O'Donoghue says that all four announced Republicans last week appeared at a LABI event hosted by Waguespack himself, but “some politically-active business folks came away disheartened by the performances.” The LABI head, by contrast, didn’t show any obvious interest in joining the race until this week.
Waguespack would bring plenty of connections to the race from his decade leading the state’s U.S. Chamber of Commerce chapter, which could help him quickly raise the type of money he’d need to go up against the well-funded Landry. However, O'Donoghue notes that the attorney general already has the support of some major LABI donors including Eddie Rispone, who narrowly lost the 2019 race to Edwards.
Waguespack, who does not appear to have sought office before, also has one big connection that could be a serious liability if he ran. He previously served as chief of staff to then-Gov. Bobby Jindal, a one-time Republican rising star who left office seven years ago with disastrous approval numbers, and Waguespack’s foes would likely tie him to the huge Jindal-era budget cuts.
Former state Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson, by contrast, earned an endorsement from Edwards Tuesday, a move aimed at ensuring that he remains the only major Democrat in the contest. The field also includes independent Hunter Lundy, a self-funding attorney who is a member of the governing board of the Christian Nationalist group National Association of Christian Lawmakers.
