1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election

1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election

← 1991 October 21, 1995 (first round)
November 18, 1995 (runoff)
1999 →
 
Candidate Mike Foster Cleo Fields Mary Landrieu
Party Republican Democratic Democratic
First round 385,267
26.14%
280,921
19.06%
271,938
18.45%
Runoff 984,499
63.5%
565,861
36.5%
Eliminated

 
Candidate Buddy Roemer Phil Preis
Party Republican Democratic
First round 263,330
17.87%
133,271
9.04%
Runoff Eliminated Eliminated

Foster:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%
Fields:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      70–80%
Landrieu:      20–30%      30–40%
Roemer:      20–30%      30–40%
Preis:      20–30%      30–40%

Governor before election

Edwin Edwards
Democratic

Elected Governor

Mike Foster
Republican

The 1995 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on November 18, 1995, to elect the governor of Louisiana.

Incumbent Democratic governor Edwin Edwards had planned to run for re-election to a second consecutive and fifth overall term in office, but he announced in June 1994, shortly after marrying his second wife Candy Picou, that he would be retiring from politics at the end of his term.[1]

All elections in Louisiana— with the exception of U.S. presidential elections— follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party when voting. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party.

In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 21, 1995, with Republican state senator Mike Foster and Democratic U.S. representative Cleo Fields finishing first and second with 26.1% and 19%, respectively. Foster defeated Fields in the November 18 runoff in a landslide. As of 2023, this is the most recent Louisiana gubernatorial election in which a successful Republican candidate was not elected in the first round.

  1. ^ "Governor Retirement Address". C-SPAN. June 6, 1994. Retrieved November 9, 2014.