Trump turns his campaign focus to Louisiana governor’s race

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — With voting complete in Mississippi and Kentucky, President Donald Trump is turning attention to last gubernatorial contest of year, bidding to drive out Louisiana’s Democratic goverr in a display of political influence ahe of 2020 elections.

president is to travel Wednesday to rastern Louisiana city of Monroe hoping to muster votes for Republican businessman Eddie Rispone and keep Democrat John Bel Edwards from a second term in a crimson state Trump won by 20 percent points. Early voting ends Saturday in v. 16 election.

An endorsement video circulated by state GOP shows Trump describing Rispone as “a fantastic man, a great success. Everything he’s touched has turned to gold.” president calls Edwards “a disaster.”

Republicans want to reclaim goverrship in a Deep South state where y believe Edwards won in a 2015 fluke election against a flawed candidate beset by a prostitution scandal. Democrats believe securing a second Edwards victory could demonstrate competitiveness in states where party rarely achieves a statewide office.

Trump’s visiting heart of congressional district represented by Republican Ralph Abraham, third-place finisher in gubernatorial primary. Both Rispone and Edwards are competing for Abraham’s voters. Polls show a tight race, with few undecided and both campaigns hoping Trump will mobilize voters in ir bases.

“Most people have me up ir mind. This is essentially a tie race at this point. It’s who gets out vote,” Rispone told a Republican women’s luncheon Tuesday.

A longtime Republican political dor who has poured millions of his own money into campaign, Rispone has tied his candidacy to Trump, introducing himself to voters in TV s by talking about his support for president.

owner of an industrial contracting firm, Rispone avoids many specifics about what he would do in office. Rispone’s campaign strategy involves panning Edwards as a “liberal, tax and spend, career politician and trial lawyer” and nationalizing race. He regularly compares himself to Trump, declaring both are “conservative outsiders.”

Edwards, a former state lawmaker and military veteran, downplays national issues, in favor of a defense of his own performance. He reminds voters about his Medicaid expansion program that dropped Louisiana’s uninsured rate below national aver and his work on a bipartisan tax deal that ended years of budget instability.

Both anti-abortion and pro-gun, Edwards in many ways doesn’t match platform of national Democratic Party. But he holds positions that helped him draw support in 2015 from Republican and independent voters he needs to win again.

Even as Trump campaigns against him, Edwards sidesteps criticism of president, describing a good working relationship with White House.

“ president is doing what his party expects him to do. When it was time for governing, he invited me to White House nine times,” Edwards said.

He calls Trump’s criticism “just general talking points that he uses regardless of state he’s visiting or candidate he’s talking about.” He tes, for example, president suggests Edwards threatens Second Amendment rights — but Edwards, Trump and Rispone don’t differ in ir positions on guns.

Ahe of Wednesday’s rally, Rispone blamed Edwards for anti-Trump rio s recently released by a New Orleans organization. s link president and Rispone to white supremacist David Duke and encour mirity voters to “vote against hatred” by choosing Edwards. Rispone called it fearmongering. Edwards’ campaign said it h thing to do with vertising.

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