The Jungle Primary

            Thanks to its French, Spanish, and American heritage, Louisiana has some unique traditions. We’ve got gumbo and jambalaya. We’ve got Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. We’ve got the Napoleonic Code and parishes instead of counties. And when it comes to politics, Louisiana couldn’t just be like any other state. No, we have our own system of electing local, state, and federal officials that is different from anywhere else in the United States. 

            Louisiana uses a jungle primary system for its elected officials. A jungle primary system is where all the candidates for office appear on the same ballot regardless of what party they belong to. Then on election day, if no candidate receives 50% of the vote, the top two candidates participate in a run-off election about a month later. Confused? Let’s take a historical example. 

            Below is a chart of all the votes from the jungle primary for the 2015 Governor's race. 

Party	Candidate	Votes	Percentage
Democratic	John Bel Edwards	444,517	39.89%
Republican	David Vitter	256,300	23.00%
Republican	Scott Angelle	214,982	19.29%
Republican	Jay Dardenne	166,656	14.96%
Democratic	Cary Deaton	11,763	1.06%
Democratic	S.L. Simpson	7,420	0.67%
Independent	Beryl Billiot	5,694	0.51%
Independent	Jeremy Odom	4,756	0.43%
Independent	Eric Orgeron	2,248	0.20%

            So there were a total of nine candidates in the 2015 governor’s race with three Democratic candidates, three independents, and three Republicans. Democrat John Bel Edwards garnered the most votes, but did not receive more than 50%, sparking a run-off between Edwards and Republican David Vitter. In the run-off, Edwards defeated Vitter, 56.1% to 43.9%. 

            The jungle primary has some interesting consequences. If we look at the vote totals from the first round of voting by party, we see that Republican candidates accounted for 57.25% of the vote while the Democrats garnered only 41.62% of all ballots cast. Despite a clear majority of Louisiana voters preferring a Republican candidate, none was elected governor. In the runoff, the percentage of votes won by each party flipped, with the Democrat Edwards winning a clear majority. 

Louisiana’s system became state law in the 1970s at the behest of Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards. Edwards, a governor who would be beset by scandal and later serve time in prison, wanted to ward off a primary challenge so he pushed for this jungle primary system. By throwing all of the candidates into one pool, he diluted the threat of any one challenger defeating him. 

Former Governor Edwin Edwards

The jungle primary has system has its clear advantages and disadvantages. It allows voters to express a preference for a particular candidate rather than a particular political party. This is what happened in the Louisiana governor’s race. Many Republican voters wanted a Republican governor but did not want to support Vitter, the leading candidate. So they voted for Angelle or Dardenne instead. In the runoff, many of those same voters, however, did not want to vote for Vitter, so they switched to Edwards. If the state had a traditional primary system where one Democrat faced off against one Republican perhaps the result would have been different. Perhaps the Angelle and Dardenne would have combined forces to defeat Vitter or perhaps Vitter may have aligned himself with one of them to ward off the third? 

The run-off has serious disadvantages for federal elected officials. Congressmen and senators elected in run-off elections enter Congress behind their colleagues in terms of seniority. In Congress, positions on key committees are apportioned according to seniority—how long an official has been in elected office. So elected officials who win on election day in November get better positions than those elected in a run-off in December. Former Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu often complained about this as it cost her seniority in the Senate. This seniority can have a real impact on the state. Senators and congressmen use their committee assignments to look after the interest of their constituents and direct federal monies to their districts. 

As a result, the state is reportedly considering a switch back to the traditional primary system. Since the legislature does not meet again until April 2019, any change would affect the 2020 elections at the earliest. So for the 2019 governor’s race, incumbent John Bel Edwards will have to navigate a field of multiple candidates in order to win reelection.