Early for the November 3rd election is over, with nearly 521,000 voters casting ballots statewide.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans among early voters by nearly 16,000.
That could be a concern for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Julia Letlow. But LSU political science professor Robert Hogan says strong turnout in two congressional races could help offset that gap.
Republicans have several well-funded candidates competing in the 5th and 6th Congressional Districts, and Hogan says those races could bring more GOP voters to the polls on Election Day.
“You’ve got a lot of Republican candidates, a few in each of the races, that are very well-funded, that are going to be turning out their votes. And those voters are likely to make up any deficit that she might incur statewide,” Hogan said.
Nearly 93,000 voters who aren’t registered with either major party also cast early ballots. Hogan cautions against assuming those voters will favor Democrats simply because of President Trump’s standing among independent voters nationally.
“There’s been a trend, especially among younger people, that they don’t want to choose. But we also know that in this state, a relatively conservative state, a lot of those are Republican voters,” Hogan said.
Early voting turnout is also up significantly from the last midterm election. About 377,000 Louisianans voted early in 2022, when more than 1.38 million people cast ballots overall and Republican John Kennedy won re-election to the U.S. Senate.
