LA 2019 Gov Race: Gov John Bel Edwards wins a 2nd term

[Pragmatic Conservative]

I suspect Edwards gets ~ 48% in the first round before winning 53-47 or so in the runoff. I don’t see him winning a runoff in a landslide though I would be surprised if he lost re-election.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

As predicted, some trend deniers have gone conspicuously silent as the night wore on

At this point, Democrats can take a large red pen and mark off all the rural counties that voted (or will vote) for Trump and Republicans in 2016, 2018, and this year. And declare those counties terra incognita, or the unknown land. Write them off completely. They are never going to win those voters over. Democrats ought to apply a laser focus to the urban areas and suburbs. Many of the statewide results last year showed that Democrats do not need the rurals to win. Case in point-Virginia.

Democrats need to do a 1992 strategy of talking simply health care and jobs to the rural communities. Period.

Democrats actually largely ran on that in 2018 and look at what result they got in the rural areas. The simple fact is the majority of rural voters perceive Democrats as being against their interests; whether that’s fair or not is another thing. The same can be said for urban core voters and Republicans. Anyway voters are more partisan than ideological these days so it shouldn’t be shocking even moderates struggle to win in regions that strongly oppose their party.