1979 Louisiana gubernatorial election

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1979 Louisiana gubernatorial election

← 1975 October 27, 1979 (first round) December 8, 1979 (runoff) 1983 →

Candidate Dave Treen Louis Lambert Jimmy Fitzmorris Party Republican Democratic Democratic First round 297,674 21.79% 283,266 20.74% 280,760 20.56% Runoff 690,691 50.35% 681,134 49.65% Eliminated   Candidate Paul Hardy E. L. "Bubba" Henry Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr. Party Democratic Democratic Democratic First round 227,026 16.62% 135,769 9.94% 124,333 9.1% Runoff Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated

First round parish results Runoff parish results Treen:      20–30%      30–40%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Lambert:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Fitzmorris:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50% Hardy:      20-30%      30-40%      40-50%      50-60% Henry:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50% Mouton:      40–50%

Governor before election Edwin Edwards Democratic Elected Governor Dave Treen Republican

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The 1979 Louisiana gubernatorial election was held on December 8, 1979. Incumbent Governor Edwin Edwards was ineligible to run for a third term, making it the only gubernatorial election in Louisiana between 1972 and 1991 to not feature Edwards as a candidate. In the race to succeed him, Dave Treen narrowly defeated Louis Lambert to become the first Republican governor of Louisiana since the Reconstruction Era.

This was the first gubernatorial election held after the adoption of the Louisiana primary in 1978.^[1] In the primary election held on October 27, Treen and Lambert finished first and second, respectively, to advance against a field of Democratic candidates including Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris, Secretary of State Paul Hardy, speaker of the Louisiana House E. L. Henry, and state senator Sonny Mouton.