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Louisiana governor’s election should absolutely frighten Trump 2020, but here’s why it doesn’t have to
Louisiana Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards speaks to a crowd Nov. 16 after being elected to a second term. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)

Louisiana governor’s election should absolutely frighten Trump 2020, but here’s why it doesn’t have to

It's the path to victory the national Democratic Party is not interested in following

The Democratic Party badly wants to beat President Donald Trump next year, make no mistake. It wants to beat him so bad, it subjected us all to a two-year Russian collusion hoax, the Brett-Kavanaugh-is-a-marauding-rapist hoax, and all the fake news that's unfit to print.

But it doesn't want to beat Trump badly enough that it's willing to do what would actually beat him.

Otherwise, Democrats would be following the model of Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, who just won re-election in his deeply red state despite the president going all-in down the campaign stretch to oust him. However, while the GOP gained even more power across the state of Louisiana, Gov. Edwards survived. Insulated from Trumpian attacks largely because of the important pro-life legislation he not only signed into law, but publicly championed as well (and still does).

And it's not just that Gov. Edwards might be the last truly pro-life Democrat left in a meaningful office anywhere in America. It's what his pro-life stance symbolized to the very voters Trump needs but is on shaky ground with — suburbanites.

Gov. Edwards is a West Point graduate, a veteran, son of a law enforcement sheriff, and pro-Second Amendment. At the same time, he also champions the traditional liberal economic issues on labor and health care. In other words, he's a pro-life Bill Clinton (minus the sleaze).

And unlike a lot of Southern Democrats who will campaign on those themes and then once elected govern like the cultural Marxists they always were, Gov. Edwards actually has a record that says otherwise. That's why he won the Baton Rouge suburbs former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) lost in the 2014 midterms. In fact, Gov. Edwards out-performed Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign by a whopping 16 points in those suburbs, and it's why he'll remain governor of the state another four years.

See, Hillary let it be known she was a disruptor to your Pleasant Valley Sundays in the suburbs. She fully intended to bring the culture war you move out to the suburbs to avoid, right to your cul-de-sac. So in the end, while you may be a suburbanite who finds Trump and his MAGA base a little unrefined for your tastes, you're not necessarily down with turning your neighborhood into Cal-Berkeley, either.

On the other hand, Edwards makes you feel safe. Like he's not a threat to your way of life. Sure, you might disagree with him on Medicaid expansion, but you've been making a good living despite too much government for awhile now. Thus, it's a disagreement you're comfortable with working around. Edwards isn't going to turn Louisiana into a safe space for the Green New Deal.

The fact that the path blazed by Edwards in Louisiana worked in a state Trump won by 20 points in 2016 indicates it would work almost anywhere. That should send shivers down the spine of Trump's re-election team.

But here's why they can pay it no mind — there isn't a single Democrat with a path to the party's 2020 nomination capable of credibly mounting a campaign on such themes. Let alone willing.

There was a thought it was going to be Joe Biden, but on top of the fact he's sadly not with it mentally and incapable of holding the office, he's already abandoned his more moderate positions on life, religious liberty, and fossil fuels to line up with the Bolshevik Revolution that's taken over the party.

Then there's Elizabeth Warren, who's the women's studies professor that can't stop shaking her fist at you. Followed by Bernie Sanders, a died-in-the-wool Soviet who shakes both fists. Pete Buttigieg's entire candidacy is a construct of the left's culture war. For if he weren't homosexual, there's no way the white male mayor of an armpit town in Podunk, Indiana, would've even made it this far in Democratic circles.

The Gov. Edwards win absolutely is Kryptonite to Trump 2020. Except the Democrats aren't interested in winning this election nearly as much as they're only interested in winning it their way. You will be provided no safe harbor if you don't like Trump as president. It's their way or the highway, and the steep toll you will pay to get off the topsy-turvy Trump Train is America must become the People's Republic of California.

For while they love the fact Gov. Edwards beat Trump in Louisiana, the Democrats running for president hate places like Louisiana even more.

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Steve Deace

Steve Deace

BlazeTV Host

Steve Deace is the host of the “Steve Deace Show” and a columnist for Blaze News. On his show, he serves up principled conservatism daily, with a snarky twist. He is a best-selling author and movie producer, but most importantly, he is a husband and dad.
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