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Three months into his first term, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry sat in his fourth-floor office in the Capitol and told reporter Tyler Bridges, “I don’t move slow.”
Landry was speaking of the dizzying pace of his first 90 days in office, but he hardly slowed down during the rest of the year. Landry pushed through a number of consequential measures and initiatives, consolidated power in his office perhaps more than any governor in decades and generally set the state’s political agenda in ways few others would have attempted.
From expanding incarceration and putting Louisiana State Police in New Orleans to tackling the state tax code, changing the way Louisianans elect many of their public officials and even bringing a live tiger to an LSU football, it has been an eventful first year for the St. Martinville native. He didn’t get everything that he wanted, but he did more than any other single person to drive the news in Louisiana in 2024.
That’s why Gov. Jeff Landry is our inaugural Louisianan of the Year.
The decision by the Opinion page staff was not an easy one. Many other Louisianans did big things in 2024, but it’s the Republican governor who has been the center of the state’s political gravity over the past 12 months.
Among his wins are an extensive reversal of the state’s criminal justice reforms, meaning stiffer sentences and the end of parole for convicts. Over some local opposition but ultimately to widespread praise, he backed up his campaign promise to tackle crime by putting a State Police troop in New Orleans. With his backing, the Legislature changed the state’s jungle primary system for federal offices and some other major offices to party primaries, which will give more ideologically pure Republicans — and Democrats — a leg up.
When a federal court ordered the state to redraw its congressional lines and to add a second majority Black district, Landry helped ensure that U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a political rival and fellow Republican, saw his district carved up.
Landry has also secured some big economic development wins, such as the new Meta data center in northeastern Louisiana, a potentially transformative $5 billion investment in a largely rural and poor area.
He convinced the Legislature to give the governor’s office the ability to name the chairs of state higher education boards, a consolidation of political power that prompted unflattering comparisons to legendary former Gov. Huey P. Long.
Like Long, Landry’s politics contain a populist streak. Also like Long, Landry has sought to use the state’s flagship university for his own political ends. He hasn’t yet marched with the band or built a dorm in the shape of a stadium, but he did arrange an appearance by a live tiger for the showdown against Alabama, a move greeted with much derision.
Like Long, Landry knows that some will get distracted by what his stunt-hand is doing while, at the same time, his policy-hand is engaged in serious work.
His tax package was, at its presentation, a complex and nuanced approach to fixing some of the state’s well-documented ills. What passed wasn’t exactly what Landry proposed, but he did manage to undo some policies that have long been targeted by reformers.
The Republican-led Legislature gave Landry plenty of wins this year, but he didn’t go undefeated. The Senate blocked a number of his wishes, including a poorly conceived constitutional convention. Other proposals, such as his attempt to redirect public money to private schools and even the shift to party primaries, were watered down or delayed.
Even so, Landry has cut a towering figure over Louisiana since he took office in January. And it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down any time soon.
For the first time this year, the editorial board is recognizing Louisianans who have made a singular impact on the news or in their fields during the calendar year. For more on those recognized, click here.
