Louisiana Democrats energized after Jamie Davis campaign

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Despite the national blue wave that uplifted Democrats across the country in the Nov. 3 midterms, Louisiana’s U.S. Senate race saw Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow beat out Democrat Jamie Davis for the open seat.

Letlow won with the early endorsement of President Donald Trump and the backing of other prominent Republicans across the state.

At his campaign party, Davis spoke in front of a crowd of supports as he reminisced on a nearly year-long campaign across all of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.

“This campaign turned away from a campaign a long time ago. It turned into a movement,” Davis said at the podium.

Davis entered the race as a relatively unknown farmer from northeast Louisiana, but by the end of the campaign, he was able to make a name for himself and narrowly lost by 25,000 votes.

Dillard University Political Analyst Robert Collins said the Senate race might have gone Davis’ way if he had the same kind of financial help Letlow did from his respective party.

“This was a winnable race for a Democrat. He just didn’t receive the amount of resources he needed from the (National) Democratic Party,” Collins said.

Davis told his watch party that he was proud to see his campaign use grassroots resources to go so far in a Senate race that many analysts predicted would be an easy win for Letlow.

“The machine that we built, we will continue to push forward to make Louisiana what we want it to be,” Davis said.

Collins said Davis’ success across the state serves as a model for future Democrats of what to do to get traction in a traditionally Republican state.

“We do know that based on this election and the closeness of this election — Louisiana is in play,” Collins said.

And while Republicans celebrate Letlow’s promotion to the Senate, LAGOP Chairman Derek Babcock said party leaders want to evaluate how Davis managed to get close to victory.

“It worked out for us. We won but we certainly should have won by a bigger margin,” he said.

Babcock believes Republican voters either didn’t vote altogether or followed the national trend of voting Democrat this Nov. 3 midterm. He wants to regroup with party leaders to find ways to educate and activate conservative voters across the state in an effort to keep the party’s stronghold in Louisiana politics.

“We are talking about Republican conservative values, why it matters, why you need to show up and vote on Election Day,” he said.

Collins said that Republicans need to start drumming their supporters up early before the 2027 fall election cycle when every statewide race is on the table.

“The Republican party is going to have to do some soul searching, and I think they’re going to have to realize everything is not going to be handed to them like it was in the past,” he said.

Meanwhile Democrats, including Davis, hope to flip some of those statewide seats in the upcoming election.

“I would either be running for governor or I will be supporting the candidate running for governor,” he said.

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