‘LaPolitics’: Do controversial GOP endorsements actually matter?

State Republican party leaders are talking about changing how they go about endorsing candidates following the recent controversy over congressional endorsements.

What that might look like remains to be seen. But the discussion raises another question: Does the party’s endorsement actually matter? With Republicans now dominating Louisiana politics, does that give the party nod more weight?

When Board of Regents Chair Misti Cordell garnered the state GOP’s endorsement for her congressional bid, some of her opponents smelled a backroom deal. Which is understandable, given her political relationship and friendship with Gov. Jeff Landry, who appointed her to chair the Regents board.

But Cordell said she got the endorsement for one simple reason: She put in the work. Beginning in March, she called all 40 of the Republican State Central Committee members who are based in northeast Louisiana’s congressional District 5 to ask for their support, she said.

Some gave it readily, while others required multiple calls and a face-to-face meeting. After getting approval from more than half of them, she submitted her results to the executive committee.

“I did my homework,” she said, noting that the party might add co-endorsements of other Republicans in the race later. “I understood the assignment. I did the work and I turned it in.”

For Cordell, who is no stranger to politics but is running for office for the first time in a crowded nine-person field, the endorsement helps with fundraising and boosts her credibility as a candidate.

“It’s helped with people that maybe thought that I didn’t have a path before,” she said. “They’re taking me seriously now.”

When it comes to voters, party endorsements don’t matter much, said Rep. Mike Bayham, a Republican State Central Committee member who has been critical of the party’s informal endorsement process. In fact, for years, the party endorsement had been considered something of a curse, because the endorsed candidate would go on to lose statewide, he said.

“I’ve yet to meet anyone telling me they’re supporting someone because they’re the party-endorsed candidate,” Bayham said.

Landry revealed the real value of the party endorsement when he was running for governor, Baham said. Party officials endorsed his bid for governor in 2022, a year before the election, drawing cries of protest from other potential candidates who hadn’t even launched their campaigns yet.

Following the endorsement, Landry’s campaign could ask donors who had already maxed out to Landry to give to the party, which was then free to coordinate its spending with the candidate, Bayham said.

“That gave [Landry] a massive financial advantage,” he added, while the party benefited from Landry’s fundraising prowess, which “kept the lights on.”

“Without Jeff Landry, the party’s operating out of the public library,” Bayham said.

Being able to note the party’s endorsement on a campaign mailer is helpful to a candidate, said state GOP Executive Director Cory Dennis, who managed Landry’s bid for governor. But he also pointed to the value of coordinated spending, adding that the relationship with Landry’s campaign and the party was mutually beneficial for both sides.

While that sort of coordination used to be against the rules for federal elections, the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down that limitation. While it’s unlikely that the Democrats or the GOP will invest massive amounts of money into Louisiana this year, since Republicans will be heavily favored to win the state’s two open seats, theoretically that change makes party endorsements even more valuable.

“Once the party endorsed a candidate, the [Republican National Committee] looks at that,” Dennis said. “The RNC is not going to help other candidates in that race.”

Maybe a party endorsement doesn’t deliver the money or votes that candidates might have assumed comes with it, but it still matters because it demonstrates who has influence over the party apparatus, said consultant Mary-Patricia Wray.

“Even if the apparatus isn’t particularly well funded, controlling the apparatus still means something,” she said. “The endorsement is the receipt.”

Of course, endorsing one candidate in a race with no incumbent and multiple high-profile Republicans running inevitably will be controversial. That sort of acrimony could be avoided by adopting formal endorsement policies and procedures rather than relying on tradition, Bayham argues.

“The biggest challenge the party has is they’re operating the same way now that they did in the ‘90s, when they were essentially in a phone booth politically,” he said. “That’s the burden of success. No one cared about you before.”

For starters, he suggests creating some sort of screening process to decide who is invited to make their case to the party. He thinks the party generally shouldn’t endorse anyone in a closed primary.

And while Bayham said it’s fine for parish committees to make local endorsements, he doesn’t see any reason for the state party to get involved in local races except maybe on rare occasions when a candidate has the potential to embarrass the party.

Dennis said executive committee members are beginning to discuss changes to the endorsement process that would make it “a little bit more structured.” He doesn’t expect any changes this year, but the process likely will look different in 2027.

Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.