Stephanie Grace: The national election season is (thankfully) ending, but Louisiana’s is just getting started

Our country’s future feels like it’s hanging in the balance as we count down to Election Day. Locally, though, this campaign season hasn’t exactly set many pulses pounding.

Despite Louisiana’s taste for electoral intrigue, only the suddenly bitter East Baton Rouge mayor-president’s primary between incumbent Sharon Weston Broome, fellow Democrat Ted James and a handful of others is delivering it this year.

There’s no drama over the presidential outcome here; candidates haven’t bothered to fight or even ask for Louisiana’s electoral votes in the two decades since the state migrated from the swing state category to the reliably Republican list.

We already elected a new governor a year ago. There’s no Senate seat up for grabs.

And all the maneuvering on the House side took place during redistricting, when the combination of voting rights litigation and some pretty personal politics cost five-term U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, a district he could win. Although the remapping made Graves’ old Republican district a Democratic stronghold and changed the boundaries for other members, all the remaining incumbents plus a former U.S. rep running in the reshaped 6th District, state Sen. Cleo Fields, are overwhelming favorites.

But once the Nov. 5 votes are counted — and here’s fervently hoping that it will go smoothly and without attempts to overturn the voters’ will — things are actually going to heat up.

In New Orleans, expect at least some candidates to replace term-limited, scandal-plagued Mayor LaToya Cantrell to be off and running by year’s end, well ahead of the Oct. 11, 2025 primary. Likely and possible contenders at this point include City Council President Helena Moreno, her council colleague Oliver Thomas, former Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter and perhaps state Sen. Royce Duplessis.

The mayoral contest will be the season’s highlight, but there also may be a battle royale brewing for sheriff. Incumbent Susan Hutson is expected to face at least one aggressive challenge from any or all of the following: former interim New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michelle Woodfork, who now works for District Attorney Jason Williams; Second City Court Constable Edwin Shorty Jr. and even maybe former Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who lost to Hutson in 2021.

Also on the ballot will be all seven City Council seats, including the at-large position that Moreno will vacate after two terms, and races for coroner, assessor and court clerk.

And voters all over the state will soon see early signs of what’s sure to be a humdinger of a Senate race in 2026.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is expected to seek a third term, and while Republicans normally get elected with ease, Cassidy would face what is essentially a new normal.

For one thing, he was censured by the state Republican Party after he voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol; Cassidy was also the only Louisiana Republican who voted to fully certify Trump’s repeatedly 2020 verified loss to Joe Biden.

Also, the 2026 election will be the first conducted under new rules that Gov. Jeff Landry pushed through the Legislature earlier this year, which will force Cassidy to survive a Republican primary to get to a general election against a Democrat.

Landry didn’t get the full party primary he wanted, but even the compromise that passed — allowing voters who are not registered in a political party to vote in any party primary — presents challenges for Cassidy. That’s because MAGA voters will be very well represented in the primary electorate, and a number of pro-Trump politicians are rumored to be considering running against him, including Treasurer John Fleming of Minden, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins of Lafayette and Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta of Metairie.

Still, Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, has plenty going on that could help him survive. His voting record is reliably Republican, but he’s also worked across the aisle on important initiatives like the giant infrastructure bill that’s bringing visible investment to the state. Some Republican voters and likely plenty of those no-party folks won’t base their decision entirely on Trump, whether or not he’s president. If the Senate turns Republican in this election, Cassidy will spend the next two years chairing the committee that oversees health, education, labor and pensions, so he’ll have the chance to make an even bigger legislative mark.

Also, new reports show he’s already got $5.8 million on hand, a state record for an incumbent at this point in the cycle.

So he’s clearly ready to rumble — whether or not we’ll be once Nov. 5 finally passes.