‘LaPolitics’: John Fleming reflects on US Senate race

    LaPolitics: Do you have any regrets about how you approached your U.S. Senate race?

    Treasurer John Fleming: Not really. We really performed way above our weight class. It took the strongest endorsement ever known in America, being Donald Trump, the absolute total power of the governor of the state of Louisiana and all of his financial contacts, as well as support from the political insider infrastructure throughout the state to defeat our campaign, which was mostly self-funded, and really without virtually any help at all but our grassroots supporters. Our polls showed us leading the entire last five weeks leading up to the runoff.

    Do you expect to help Julia Letlow’s campaign at all?

    No, I don’t anticipate assisting in that campaign at all.

    During your campaign, you focused a lot of attention on your opposition to carbon capture and sequestration. Do you expect carbon capture to be an important campaign issue in Louisiana next year?

    I imagine there will be people getting into the governor’s race who will be opposed to carbon sequestration. And I do believe that there will be people running for office in the Legislature either having changed their minds about supporting it, or running against someone who still supports it. We already have some members of the Legislature who have seen the light and have changed their minds, even though they voted for it in the beginning.

    —They said it: “If you eat too much of that foreign shrimp and oysters, you’ll grow an extra ear, won’t you?” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, questioning Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins during a Senate hearing