Derek Babcock is a candidate for the Republican State Central Committee and to be chair of the Louisiana Republican Party.
Derek Babcock is a candidate for the Republican State Central Committee and to be chair of the Louisiana Republican Party.
A triumphant Louisiana Republican Party elected new leadership Saturday, with speakers celebrating the GOP holding all statewide offices and a super-majority in the state Legislature.
Derek Babcock, an insurance company owner from Livingston Parish, was chosen by the Republican State Central Committee as the new party chair to replace Louis Gurvich, who didn’t seek reelection after six years in the position.
Roger Villere and Gena Gore were selected to represent the state GOP before the Republican National Committee. Gore defeated former state Rep. Lenar Whitney, who had held the position for 12 years.
A meeting room at the Capitol Hilton in Baton Rouge on Saturday buzzed with excited voices over the party’s good fortunes.
Republicans decimated Democrats in last year’s elections, putting Jeff Landry in the Governor’s Mansion and extending the GOP advantage to 73-32 in the House and 28-11 in the Senate.
“Today we hold every significant position in the state, an unheard of accomplishment,” said Charlie Davis of Baton Rouge, who was elected Saturday as the party’s secretary.
This would have been unimaginable during most of the 20th century when Democrats dominated Louisiana politics. But Republicans elected their first governor since Reconstruction in 1979 and, after years of steady gains, won narrow control of the state Legislature in 2011.
Bobby Jindal, a Republican, was governor at the time.
Landry has a freer hand to pursue his agenda given the large Republican legislative majorities.
The state party played a key role in boosting him early in the 2023 governor’s race by endorsing him a year before the election.
Gurvich faced criticism afterward that he had orchestrated the endorsement for Landry before the other candidates could compete for the party nod.
Critics of Gurvich within the party were represented Saturday by Jude Savoie, a member of the state committee from Iberia Parish. He challenged Babcock in the chair race, calling for greater transparency in how the party spends its money.
But Babcock, who had been secretary for the past four years, also called for more transparency and won easily, helped by endorsements from Gurvich and business owner Eddie Rispone, who ran for governor in 2019 and nearly defeated Gov. John Bel Edwards when he ran for reelection.
With the focus on state politics, former President Donald Trump merited mention only by a few of the speakers but then always favorably.
Asked in an interview whether Trump won the 2020 presidential election, as he claims, Babcock said he accepted that Joe Biden is president but believes that “irregularities” prevented Trump from winning.
Louisiana Democrats will choose their party leaders on April 13. Katie Bernhardt, the chair, has been under fire after the disappointing election results last year but is running for reelection. Former state Rep. Randall Gaines of LaPlace and Bogalusa Mayor Tyrin Truong are challenging her.
Email Tyler Bridges at tbridges@theadvocate.com.
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