A charismatic Pentecostal preacher. A Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. A former Republican state representative. A one-time Saints defensive star. Leaders of groups that oppose putting children in adult prisons.
An unlikely crew of people on both the left and the right on Saturday to revamp Louisiana’s to the state constitution.
for an expensive advertising campaign and stumped throughout Louisiana in particular for Amendment 2, that would have rewritten the state tax code to reduce the top individual tax rate and impose a cap on government spending. He supported the other three amendments, which would have , expanded the number of crimes that and .
Each of the four amendments lost overwhelmingly, winning only 35% or so of the vote.
After a string of successes, Landry suffered his worst defeat during his 15 months as governor.
Black voters turned out in bigger than expected numbers to vote “no,†after being reached through a grassroots digital media campaign and apparently motivated at least in part by opposition to Landry and President Donald Trump.
About 10,000 more people voted in liberal New Orleans in Saturday’s election than did in the governor’s race in October 2023 that elected Landry, and 91% of those who voted there on Saturday rejected all four amendments.
But the rejection was so decisive that the high Democratic turnout doesn’t tell the whole story – the governor didn’t win over enough Republicans, analysts say.
Amendment 2 lost in 50 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes, said pollster and political analyst John Couvillon. The amendment passed in only 8 of the 28 Republican-held Senate districts and 27 of the 73 Republican-held House districts, he added.
“It was a collective middle finger to the governor,†said Ed Chervenak, a veteran pollster and political analyst at the University of New Orleans.
That’s not how Landry saw it.
“We do not see this as a failure,†he said in a statement immediately after the results where he blamed progressive billionaire George Soros and “far left liberals†for the result.
Conservative resistance
Landry’s statement offended ultra-conservatives such as Woody Jenkins, a Republican who served 28 years in the state House representing Baton Rouge and now publishes the Central City »Æ¹Ï´«Ã½.
“The idea that Soros money defeated it is absurd,†Jenkins said.
Jenkins used his newspaper’s website to spread opposition to Amendment 2 because one of the many provisions in the measure would have taken the tax exemption for churches out of the constitution and let state legislators decide whether to keep or end it.
Hunter Lundy, a Pentecostal minister and former trial lawyer who finished fifth in the 2023 governor’s race, hammered away at that point with a self-financed ad campaign on the radio and digital media.
The Rev. Tony Spell, a Pentecostal preacher in Baton Rouge, was the first prominent voice to oppose Amendment 2.
He recorded videos that like-minded ministers and Jenkins spread on social media.
Landry met with Spell and Jenkins at the Governor’s Mansion on March 5 in an attempt to neutralize their opposition but failed.
Spell said he gave permission through Lyman White, a former LSU star linebacker who is program director of Professional Athletes Supporting Students, to a progressive group to use his anti-Amendment 2 material in their campaign. That group created the website that opposed all four amendments.
Outside of that, Spell and Jenkins on the right and the nonprofits on the left say they didn’t coordinate their campaigns against the amendments.
Pushback from the left
The progressive groups say each of them started out opposing individual amendments, but they ended up joining forces to oppose all four.
“We realized early on that if we got everybody under the same umbrella and had the same messaging, we could be more effective,” said Drew Prestridge, who handled communications for
Added Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress: “It all came together to create a pretty overwhelming chorus.â€
His group opposed Amendment 1, fearing it would allow the selection of unelected judges by conservative lawmakers to supersede the power of elected progressive judges in big cities. It also opposed Amendment 3, which would have allowed more children to be jailed in adult prisons.
Invest in Louisiana, a Baton Rouge-based group, focused on the anti-Amendment 2 message.
Taking the lead in opposing Amendment 3 was a recently created coalition called the Liberty and Dignity Campaign, led by Kristen Rome of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, Sarah Omojola of the Vera Institute of Justice and Ashley Shelton of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice.
“We don’t think that adult prison for 14-year-olds is the answer,†Shelton said.
The Vera Institute spent more than $400,000 opposing Amendment 3.
“We really understood that voters care, and they care more when you talked to them,†said Omojola. “So we talked to them. They showed up.â€
Step Up Louisiana canvassed voters, as did others.
About 17% of Black voters turned out on election day versus only 14% of White voters, an extraordinary result given that a higher percentage of White people almost always vote, said Couvillon.
Still, he added, "the amendments lost by such a large margin that the elevated Black turnout made it lose by 65% rather than 62%."
"Black people are under attack in this country, so more are paying attention," said Gary Chambers Jr., a Baton Rouge advocate who made a name in losing bids for the U.S. House and Senate in recent years. Chambers appeared at town halls in five cities in Louisiana with Shelton.
The overall turnout was 21%. Landry was caught on a live mike in Washington, D.C. several days earlier saying .
Malcolm Jenkins, a two-time Super Bowl champ who played safety for the Saints, told voters .
Norris Henderson, executive director of Voters Organized to Educate, recruited John Legend, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, to do a video calling on voters to oppose all four amendments.
So did such African-American influencers as Joy Reid, Monique Pressley and Tiffany Cross.
The push against the amendments especially resonated in New Orleans.
In one predominately-African American neighborhood in the Ninth Ward, all 147 people who voted opposed Amendment 2, the tax measure.
In another Ninth Ward precinct, all 35 voters rejected it.
“There was significant outrage about what we’re seeing from Donald Trump and Jeff Landry,†said Davante Lewis, a member of the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, who represents New Orleans and Baton Rouge. “These amendments provided the first opportunity to show their discontent with the direction of their state and of their country.â€
Who supported the push?
Landry assembled an impressive coalition to support Amendment 2, including the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Educators, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Americans for Prosperity and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy.
Donald Trump Jr. sent out a text message of support. Curtis Jackson, the Shreveport-based rapper better known as 50 Cent, .
Brent Littlefield, Landry’s chief media strategist, blamed the defeat on false statements and misrepresentations by opponents of Amendment 2.
“Conservative voters are happy with their legislators, the governor and the president,†Littlefield said. “There seemed to be more energy on the left than the right.â€
State Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, sponsored the legislation that put Amendments 3 and 4 on the ballot.
“They just went down with the ship,†Morris said. “I’m disheartened and disappointed.â€
