Louisiana gubernatorial election, 1979

December 8, 1979



Nominee	David Treen	Louis Lambert
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	690,691	681,134
Percentage	50.35%	49.65%

Governor before election

Edwin Edwards
Democratic

Elected Governor

David Treen
Republican

Elections in Louisiana

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The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1979 resulted in the election of David Treen as the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction.

Background

Elections in Louisiana—with the exception of U.S. presidential elections—follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary or the nonpartisan blanket primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. 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. Texas uses this same format for its special elections. In this election, the first round of voting was held on October 27, 1979. The runoff was held on December 8, 1979.

Results

First voting round, October 27

Candidate	Party affiliation	Votes received	Percent
David Treen	Republican	297,674	21.79%
Louis Lambert	Democrat	283,266	20.74%
Jimmy Fitzmorris	Democrat	280,760	20.56%
Paul Hardy	Democrat	227,026	16.62%
E.L. "Bubba" Henry	Democrat	135,769	9.94%
Sonny Mouton	Democrat	124,333	9.10%
Luther Devine Knox	Democrat	6,327	0.46%
Ken Lewis	Democrat	5,942	0.44%
Greg Nelson	No Party	4,783	0.35%
Total		1,365,880	100%

Runoff, December 8

Candidate	Party affiliation	Votes received	Percent
David Treen	Republican	690,691	50.35%
Louis Lambert	Democrat	681,134	49.65%
Total		1,371,825	100%

Preceded by 1975 gubernatorial election	Louisiana gubernatorial elections	Succeeded by 1983 gubernatorial election

Sources

State of Louisiana. Primary and General Election Returns, 1979.

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