Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1971-72

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The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1971-1972 was held in three rounds. The two Democratic Party primaries were held on November 6 and December 8, 1971. The general election was held on February 1, 1972, in which Edwin Edwards defeated Republican candidate David Treen to become Governor of Louisiana.

Early in the campaign, conventional wisdom of many political analysts predicted that the race's top candidates would be Gillis Long, Jimmie Davis, and C.C. "Taddy" Aycock. However, the two candidates to make the runoff, Edwin Edwards and J. Bennett Johnston, were relative newcomers to the Louisiana political scene.

[edit] Results

First Democratic Party Primary, November 6, 1971

Candidate	Votes received	Percentage of votes cast
Edwin Edwards	276,397	23.54%
J. Bennett Johnston	208,830	17.79%
Gillis William Long	164,276	13.99%
Jimmie H. Davis	138,756	11.82%
John G. Schwegmann	92,072	7.84%
C.C. "Taddy" Aycock	88,465	7.54%
Samuel Bell, Sr.	72,486	6.17%
Speedy O. Long	61,359	5.23%
Frank T. Salter, Jr.	32,203	2.74%
James W. Moore	9408	0.8%
Warren J. "Puggy" Moity	8965	0.76%
David L. Chandler	7244	0.62%
Huey P. Coleman	4833	0.41%
Harold Lee Bethune II	3032	0.26%
Wilford L. Thompson, Sr.	2535	0.21%
Addison Roswell Thompson	1924	0.16%
Jimmy Strain	1258	0.11%