The policies

Despite the seemingly failed strategic efforts of the GOP, it remains important to point out the policies on which the candidates are running.

Regarding the social issues that have dominated national attention, all three candidates hold the traditionally conservative opinions on supporting the Second Amendment and opposing abortion. At the debate between the three candidates on Sept. 19, Edwards, a Catholic Democrat, defended his history of pro-life legislation. He pointed to his recent signing of a statewide bill to ban abortions after a heartbeat can be detected in the fetus, a milestone that often comes six-weeks into a pregnancy, and does not include an exception for rape or incest. Though Edwards said he could support background checks for gun sales at commercial venues, all three were unwilling to support a law enforcing universal background checks. 

Climate Change

All three candidates have acknowledged the existence of climate change, but all have also indicated support for the oil and gas industry. Edwards, in his first term, received unanimous approval from the state legislature for his Coastal Master Plan, which calls for $50 billion over the next 50 years to protect the coast. 

He has yet to invest in any measure to prevent the onslaught of the climate crisis that has dominated national attention and taken over news-cycles surrounding the presidential Democratic primary, however. This effort, therefore, probably says more about his ability to work across the aisle than his tendencies toward combating climate change.

The Economy

Though all candidates support economic growth, their proposals to get there differ. Edwards, on his website and in his stump speeches, touts Louisiana’s having gone from a budget deficit to budget surplus during his tenure, and promises to continue growth. Abraham takes the traditional conservative approach and promises to lower taxes and reduce the size of government, and Rispone boasts that, as a businessman, he has created 3,000 jobs already.

Education

The main differences between the candidates lie in two distinct areas: Louisiana education and immigration rhetoric. 

Louisiana’s education system has undergone enormous change in the last decade, and the system is still changing. Currently, Louisiana public schools are ranked 48th in the country, and it is clear that comprehensive reform and extensive support for education is needed at an executive level, which Edwards is prepared to provide. 

In his first term, he gave teachers a raise for the first time in a decade and invested $20 million into early childhood education, an effort he says he is prepared to continue in a second term. Neither Rispone nor Abraham have any plans on their campaign websites to address education, and if Rispone is to mimic the agenda of his president as closely as he says, it is likely that adequately funding public education will not be a top item on his to-do list.

Immigration

Possibly the only directly partisan split between Edwards and his Republican rivals is on the issue of immigration. Rispone, in a September TV ad, complained of “liberal lunatics” and says that he stands “with President Trump on immigration. The media says that’s racist — what a bunch of politically correct nonsense.” 

Rispone has incorrectly called New Orleans under Edwards a “sanctuary city” and supports work requirements for welfare, which would affect non-citizens working in the U.S. 

Abraham, the other GOP candidate, has made statements about building Trump’s wall and commended a local sheriff’s decision to check the citizenship of those booked in the parish jail. Because Trump carried the state by such a large margin in 2016, it is only reasonable to assume that these GOP candidates are trying to out-Trump each other in an effort to win over the state’s conservatives who so strongly supported the president. In every single ad that Rispone has aired, for example, he has mentioned that he has supported Trump against Hillary in various ways, including having a Trump bumper-sticker on his truck.

Though Edwards has not commented as extensively on immigration as Abraham and Rispone have, he did call Trump’s attack on the four Democratic congresswomen  known as “the Squad” earlier this summer “out of bounds,” and likening them to insults hurled at African Americans during the Civil Rights era in the South.