Louisiana’s six congressional seats were won outright on election night.
While many private polls showed U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins would slide into a second term, some experts thought he would be in a runoff.
“I’ve seen turnout figures around 47, 48%,” said KATC Political Analyst Pearson Cross. “That’s pretty amazing for a mid-year election, and people were energized.”
Cross said voter turnout was better than pundits predicted. He acknowledges though President Trump lost several Republican seats in the mid-term election, it’s not as bad as expected.
“Comparing this to earlier results…’94, Clinton lost in his first mid-term after elected. He lost 52 seats. President Obama lost 63 seats in 2010, and Donald Trump lost 26 seats,” said Cross.
As for the 3rd congressional seat, Clay Higgins clenched victory with 56% of the vote. Higgins was facing six challengers.
“I think a lot of people thought with Josh Guillory getting support from Republican Rudy Giuliani and with a strong push from Democrat Mimi Methvin, that it would push him into a runoff,” Cross said. “At the end of the day, he pulled through. Now, he didn’t exactly crush his opponents; he was re-elected with the least margin of victory.”
Cross says money plays a role in each election, but particularly this race.
“Congressman Higgins had a lot more money, but he did not go out and really aggressively raise and spend money. He could have spent 2, 3, 4 million dollars, but he didn’t do that.”
Six constitutional amendments were approved, and the one gaining the most attention is Amendment Two. The amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts to convict suspects in non-capital felony cases.
“It’s good news for people convicted under a 10-2 jury verdict,” said Cross. “We won’t allow those anymore for felony cases. We’ve joined the rest of the country, and Jim Crow was put to bed at least a little bit.”
