Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1979

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The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1979 resulted in the election of David Treen as the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction.

[edit] Background

Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party.[2] In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 27, 1979. The runoff was held on December 8, 1979.

[edit] Results

First voting round, October 24

Candidate	Party affiliation	Votes received	Percentage of votes cast
David Treen	Republican	297,674
Louis Lambert	Democrat	283,266
Jimmy Fitzmorris	Democrat	280,760
Paul Hardy	Democrat	227,026
E.L. "Bubba" Henry	Democrat	135,769
Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr.	Democrat	124,333
Luther Devine Knox	Democrat	6,327
Ken Lewis	Democrat	5,942
Greg Nelson	No Party	4,783

Runoff, December 8

Candidate	Party affiliation	Votes received	Percentage of votes cast
David Treen	Republican	690,691
Louis Lambert	Democrat	681,134

Preceded by 1975 gubernatorial election

Louisiana gubernatorial elections

Succeeded by 1983 gubernatorial election

[edit] Sources

State of Louisiana. Primary and General Election Returns, 1979.