Jeff Landry next Louisiana governor

Jeff Landry, Attorney General of Louisiana, will become his State’s next Governor after winning a jungle primary without a runoff. His victory ends eight years of Democratic ownership of the governor’s mansion and shows how powerful Donald Trump’s endorsement remains. At the same time he is still taking part in a landmark case against federal government censorship of social media.

Jeff Landry wins outright

The attorney general was taking part in a jungle primary, against two other Republican contenders and one Democrat. This Democrat was not incumbent Gov. Jon Bel Edwards, who is not re-eligible, having served his allowed two terms. Instead it was Louisiana Secretary of Transportation Shawn D. Wilson.

The Gateway Pundit has the returns. With 3871 of 3929 precincts (99 percent) reporting, the vote totals are:

After the votes came in (and the Associated Press projected him to win outright), he posted to X:

In his victory speech, Jeff Landry emphasized unity of the State and heightened expectations of State government.

Donald Trump posted his own statement on Truth Social:

A very BIG VOTE in the GREAT STATE OF LOUISIANA for A.G. Jeff Landry, who will now become the Governor. Despite many people running, Jeff was easily able to get a majority, meaning that there will be NO RUNOFF. This is an amazing victory for a man who will be a truly GREAT GOVERNOR. Congratulations to all! DONALD J. TRUMP.

A landmark case

As Attorney General, Jeff Landry helped file the landmark case of Missouri v. Biden, now before the U.S. Supreme Court. That case argues that the federal government compelled many social media platforms to function as State actors. On July 4, 2023, Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana (Monroe Division) agreed. He issued a sweeping preliminary injunction to stop all contact by multiple government agencies and other suspected State actors from contacting social media platform moderational (“Trust and Safety”) departments to order or encourage them to censor their users’ speech on their platforms. The federal government appealed, and thus far the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has restricted the injunction to four agencies. They are the White House, the Surgeon General’s Office, the CDC, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The government, not satisfied with any restrictions, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review. In their briefs, the federals argue they have a compelling interest to censor. According to the docket, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Supervising Justice for the Fifth Circuit, has stayed the injunction until Friday, October 20, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. That applies to the original July 4 injunction. According to Jim Hoft (who is also a named plaintiff), the Solicitor General will try to buck all restrictions. If he does, Hoft speculates, the plaintiffs can ask the Supreme Court to lift all stays and modifications. That would put the Big Injunction into immediate full force and effect.