Gov. Jeff Landry called Democratic state senators to his office on Nov. 19, urgently needing their help: Far-right conservatives had imperiled his tax plan because of their reluctance to support higher taxes.
Over the next three days, Landry crafted a deal with the Democrats to assure passage of the tax package, albeit with changes. The Democrats would back a sales tax increase — which would hit the poorest hardest — in exchange for the governor spending more on education programs that would benefit their constituents.
The negotiations took place less than a week after Landry had won plaudits from many conservatives by publicly criticizing an LSU law school professor for asking hard questions of students who voted for President-elect Donald Trump.
The juxtaposition of the two events illustrates a central feature of how Louisiana’s 57th governor operated during his first year in office.
Landry won fervent support among social conservatives for taking Trump-like stands on a number of high-profile social issues: objecting to vaccine mandates, opposing rights for transgender youth and sending Louisiana National Guard troops to the Texas border to ostensibly stem illegal immigration. And he typically trumpeted these moves for his political base. When critics of legislation requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms said they would take him to court, the governor shot back, “I can’t wait to be sued.”
But the back-slapping Cajun has not allowed his conservative ideology to restrict the pursuit of his goals. In the immediate aftermath of the New Year’s Day attack in the French Quarter, Landry made no effort to politicize the attack by tying it to illegal immigration, as Trump and some Louisiana conservatives did.
That reflects Landry’s strategy of quietly negotiating behind the scenes with Democrats and other foes to further his political agenda when he hits a roadblock.
“He’s a very transactional guy when he runs into problems in the Legislature,” said veteran political operative Roy Fletcher, who mostly works for Republicans. “When he faces a situation where he may not be able to get all that he wants, he figures out who can get him what he needs. He’s not quick to change his basic principles. But he’s quick to change his strategy to get to some part of his basic principles. That’s not a bad thing.”
In an interview, Landry said he thinks he and Trump have similar governing styles.
“Both of us have a populist streak,” Landry said. “A vein of populist conservatism has been running through the country for a decade now. That really suits the politics of Louisiana as well. It’s working for the citizens of the state and the policies we’ve been able to put in place. Louisiana is turning the page on a new chapter that’s going to dawn a new era.”
Over three special sessions and the regular session, the Legislature gave Landry much of what he wanted.
Epitomizing his statement in an April interview, “I don’t move slow,” he worked quickly to enact his campaign promises by getting state legislators to pass bills to lock up more offenders, expand school vouchers and reduce Louisiana’s reliance on income taxes while revamping the tax system.
Supporters cheer his moves.
“Jeff has done what’s needed to be done in Louisiana in the last 50 years,” said Tony Clayton, the law-and-order Democratic district attorney of West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes. “Governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, just placated the norm. We’ve been subpar economically. Houston has eclipsed us. He’s put us in line to fix the tax system and entice businesses to come to Louisiana. He’s attempting to fix the education system.”
New Orleans
To the surprise of some, Landry has not followed the lead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Republicans who have turned Democratic-led cities into political punching bags.
Take Landry’s approach with the heavily blue city of New Orleans, for example.
The governor pushed the city’s much-criticized Sewerage & Water Board to better serve its long-suffering customers and has spearheaded an effort to repave streets and clean up the area around the Caesars Superdome in advance of next month’s Super Bowl.
To address voters’ concerns over crime, Landry brought a permanent 20-person State Police unit to the city called Troop Nola. It has deployed drones and cameras in the French Quarter and, while working with the New Orleans Police Department and the FBI, has targeted guns, drugs and violent attacks. The four major categories of violent crime — homicides, nonfatal shootings, carjackings and armed robbery — dropped by 36% in New Orleans in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
“The crime reductions could not have happened without Troop Nola,” said Rafael Goyeneche, the crime commission’s president.
The governor also confected a deal with Orleans Parish District Jason Williams to allow the state to prosecute people arrested by Troop Nola — the same Jason Williams who had labeled Landry’s attacks on the city during the gubernatorial campaign as “racist.”
“He has been very thoughtful on the role that the state and the governor can play in the public safety and health of the city of New Orleans,” Williams said recently, adding that he supports Troop Nola’s continuing presence.
Landry expressed his strong resolve to ensure that authorities keep New Orleans safe after the Jan. 1 truck rampage on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people and left 30 injured.
He added that no one should question whether the Sugar Bowl, postponed a day because of the attack, would be safe. He attended the game to emphasize the point.
“If we’re able to fix New Orleans, there’s probably not another place in Louisiana we can’t fix,” the governor said in the interview.
Increased state spending
While social conservatives sing Landry’s praises, the governor has not shown himself to be a fiscal conservative. He has increased state spending, and the adoption of his tax plan seems likely to give lawmakers more money to spend on the annual operations of the state next year.
Amid all his activity, Landry has taken heavy-handed moves during his first 12 months in office that remind observers of Huey P. Long.
Landry meddled in the affairs of LSU by forcing university officials to bring a live tiger back to Tiger Stadium for the Alabama game, if only for seven minutes.
He got legislators to expand the already considerable powers of the governor’s office to allow him to appoint chairs of state boards without delay. The new chairs are typically tied to big political donors and in some cases have far less experience in their new roles than existing board members.
Landry doesn’t shy away from the comparison with Long, saying Long was known as a leader who would “get things done.” Landry added, “You can’t make a good omelet without breaking a couple of eggs.”
Less transparency
Landry also has operated less transparently than his predecessors, withholding public records by citing exemptions not spelled out in law, rarely notifying reporters of his public appearances and releasing copies of his schedule afterward with few details.
Landry has weakened the independence of the state ethics board, which has accused the governor of violating state law by not reporting free flights on donors’ planes.
“Louisiana has a long and troubling history of political cronyism and backroom deals,” said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a Baton Rouge think tank. “The state has spent decades struggling to restore public trust by building stronger ethics laws and increasing transparency. Gov. Landry’s moves to consolidate power and weaken oversight undermine those efforts and undermine the checks and balances that ensure accountability in government.”
While displaying an informal style — Landry favors cowboy boots and open-necked shirts — he has shown a taste for luxurious travel organized by wealthy donor friends, including Shane Guidry and Boysie Bollinger.
Guidry has frequently flown Landry on his private plane and taken him deep-sea fishing on his yacht. The two men are especially close. Landry has delegated key appointments in metro New Orleans to Guidry, who donated and raised $3 million for him during the governor’s race and owns a company that transports food, fuel and materials to offshore oil platforms.
Landry has stayed at Guidry’s seven-bedroom camp at Grand Isle. He also stayed at a sumptuous villa in Las Vegas in December that Caesars Palace comped for Guidry, a high-rolling gambler, during the National Finals Rodeo. Guidry posted a video that showed Landry mixing a drink at the villa’s bar next to its pool table.
Dove hunting
In August, Landry flew on Bollinger’s plane on a previously undisclosed trip to go dove hunting in Argentina.
Guidry and Bollinger said they haven’t sought any business favors from Landry.
Jeffrey Martin Landry, 54, grew up in St. Martinville, outside of Lafayette, with no firm plans after high school. He initially worked in a sugar cane field but went on to master local politics and eventually obtained a law degree from Loyola University. With an ability to ingratiate himself with big donors and talk to average voters, he won a single term in the U.S. House and two terms as attorney general before winning the primary outright in the 2023 governor’s race.
Landry took office on Jan. 8 last year with a strong wind behind his back: He would govern with GOP supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, something none of the four other Republican governors during the modern political era had enjoyed.
A week after becoming governor, Landry convened a special session after federal courts indicated Louisiana needed to redraw its congressional districts by creating a second Black-majority district in the six-member delegation. Landry chose to do that by sacrificing the career of U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a five-term, White Republican from Baton Rouge who had crossed Landry by strongly backing Stephen Waguespack, the former president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, in the governor’s race.
The governor’s move accomplished a political trifecta.
In punishing Graves, Landry sent a warning to other politicians not to mess with him.
The new boundaries rewarded then-state Sen. Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat, by creating the congressional district that he would win in November. Fields had supported Landry during his 2015 election to be attorney general.
Lastly, the move won points with Tony Clayton, a close friend of Fields’ who was the highest profile Black person to support Landry during the governor’s race.
MAGA measures
During a second special session that began a month later, Landry got lawmakers to deliver virtually all the anti-crime measures that he wanted. The new laws make it easier for Louisiana to execute condemned inmates on death row, toughen penalties for criminals and limit their opportunities for second chances in parole and post-conviction appeals.
The governor watched intently from the spectator gallery with families of murder victims on the day that senators, on the floor below, passed legislation allowing lethal injection to kill those sentenced to death.
During the regular session, Landry got lawmakers to pass a host of MAGA-like measures: Schools must display the Ten Commandments, transgender students can’t insist that teachers call them by their preferred pronouns and schools can’t allow discussion of sexual and gender identity.
But Landry failed to win his biggest goal when senators refused to heed his call for a special assembly to rewrite Louisiana’s constitution. The Senate also watered down the creation of Education Savings Accounts, which allow the use of public dollars for private schools or homeschooling.
Landry hasn’t addressed the insurance crisis facing homeowners, preferring to let Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple take the lead so far.
“It’s a huge, existential crisis to Louisiana, but it’s not an issue he’s done much about,” said Bob Mann, a retired LSU communications professor and Democrat who has written extensively about Louisiana governors.
Tax package
During a third special session, in November, devoted to the governor’s tax package, House members once again passed all of Landry’s initiatives but resisted him for the first time by declining to approve his proposal to extend sales taxes to a host of services, such as dog grooming, landscaping and spa treatments.
Landry turned to Senate Democrats to secure passage of a bill that both lowered individual income taxes and raised the state sales tax — the centerpiece of his tax package. In exchange, he agreed to provide more money to educate students at Southern and Grambling universities and authorize more education and training dollars for jailed teenagers to help keep them from committing more crimes once freed.
A number of legislators say privately that the governor has yelled and cursed at them at times to try to get his way.
But Senate President Cameron Henry, who acknowledged having a yelling match with Landry early in his term, said the governor has learned that working well with legislators requires give-and-take.
“He has definitely become a better listener to members and done a better job of explaining what he’s trying to do,” said Henry, R-Metairie. “He’s come around to understanding that just because we’re all friends doesn’t mean we’re going to agree with everything he says. He appreciates that it’s better to get 50% of something rather than 100% of nothing. If he continues with the style he’s using now, he’ll be an extremely successful and popular governor.”
Sending a message
During that special session, the governor also sent a message to discourage Republicans from breaking ranks. It was aimed at Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, who had just been the rare GOP legislator to criticize Landry publicly. Three days later, Landry pointedly skipped an appearance at a Miguez fundraiser in Youngsville where he had been advertised as the headliner.
Several days after the snub, with the message having been delivered, Landry greeted him in the Capitol and wished him happy birthday, Miguez said.
“He went from shaking his finger at me to shaking my hand like nothing had happened,” Miguez said later. “Now that’s a governor that knows how to make things happen.”
Miguez and other far-right conservatives have been pressing Landry to lower government spending. However, the tax package will raise enough money to eliminate a projected budget deficit next year without any budget cuts. Meanwhile, the government spent $263 million more in fiscal year 2025 than the previous year on the ongoing needs of the state, a 1.1% increase.
In December, Landry created a commission to find ways to reduce spending, headed by Steve Orlando, a major campaign donor who owned a successful oil services company and often accompanies the governor on trips with Guidry.
“Fiscal responsibility has been a top priority for Gov. Landry,” said a news release announcing the commission.
The tax package adopted in November also eliminated a tax that big business owners hate — the corporate franchise tax — and through all the changes will make Louisiana more attractive to out-of-state investors, Landry believes.
He has already scored a couple of big apparent wins with the announcement by Meta, Facebook’s parent company, that it plans to spend as much as $10 billion to build a massive artificial intelligence data center near Monroe in north Louisiana. Hyundai, the Korean auto giant, would like to build a multibillion-dollar steel mill in Ascension Parish to supply parts for vehicle assembly plants in Alabama and Georgia.
“The first year of this administration has shown that Louisiana is not only in the game but in it to win,” said Susan Bourgeois, who heads the state agency that promotes investment in the state.
