Landry credits Sen. John Kennedy with fix to move Louisiana to party primary, end jungle system

by: Bonnie Bolden, John Walton, Shannon Heckt

Posted: Jan 19, 2024 / 12:04 PM CST

Updated: Jan 19, 2024 / 04:40 PM CST

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday, Jan. 19, credited U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) with helping to find a way to end the state’s jungle primary system.

On Thursday, the state Senate pared back a bill approved by the House. Friday morning, an amendment was added that would let independents and no-party voters choose which party primary they will vote in.

The Senate approved the bill 29-9 on Friday, and the House voted 67-36. It now goes to Landry for approval.

After the votes, he also thanked the bill’s author, state Rep. Julie Emerson (R-Carencro), with starting the process of “necessary structural change to our election system.”

“It’s not exactly how I wanted it, but again, this is a process that we go through, and we have 144 different voices here,” Emerson said.

One of Landry’s goals for the current legislative special session was for the state to move to a party-based primary system.

“In terms of closed primaries, it’s been a goal for many that gained traction under the leadership of Governor Landry, and now was the time to act,” Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier said in a news release.

On Friday morning, Kennedy shared on X, formerly Twitter, that he’d talked with Landry about an amendment to proposed legislation that would “keep independents and no-party voters from being disenfranchised in closed primaries.”

Under Louisiana’s “jungle primary,” all candidates, regardless of party, face each other on the same ballot. If no one candidate tops 50% in the primary, the top two vote-getters advance to a head-to-head runoff, which can pit two Republicans or two Democrats against each other.

A closed primary is when GOP-only and Democrat-only contests are held, and the winners face each other in the general election. In addition, voters must be registered party members to vote in their primary.

“This change, which Gov. Landry and I worked on together, will strengthen the closed primary bill and allow the large number of independents in Louisiana to participate in the primary process,” Kennedy wrote.

The Louisiana Freedom Caucus issued a news release on Friday afternoon saying they disagree with the approved bill.

“For the Senate to tell our state parties they have to let other-than-registered members of the party vote for their party’s choice is not acceptable. We will continue to work to make sure our political parties have the right to nominate their own candidates exclusively before the general election takes place,” said LFC Chairman Beryl Amedée.

The special session started on Monday, Jan. 15, and ended Friday, Jan. 19.