BATON ROUGE - Republican Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, fourth-place finisher in the recent gubernatorial primary election, has endorsed Democrat John Bel Edwards for governor.

Dardenne appeared Thursday morning at LSU with Edwards to make the endorsement.

 

"I don't intend to be out on the campaign trail, I'm not going to follow John Bel around," said Dardenne. "I think it is fair to my supporters who are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, to know what I was going to do when I went into the voting booth," he added.

Dardenne fought bitterly with U.S. Senator David Vitter in the primary election. He had originally said we would not endorse another candidate if he did not make the runoff. But later at the LSU debate in October, Dardenne said he only wanted himself, Scott Angelle, or Edwards to be governor.

 

Dardenne is not the first Republican to endorse Edwards. Several Republican sheriffs have thrown their support behind the Democrat. Vitter, meanwhile, announced this week he'd secured the endorsement of former Governor Mike Foster and the Louisiana House Republican delegation.

 

Lousiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere chastised Dardenne for his endorsement, calling him the Nick Saban of Louisiana politics.

 

"Quite often endorsements are over-hyped, they don't make a lot of difference in most races. But this endorsement is a big deal," said Edwards. 

 

Edwards came in first for the October 24th general election with about 40 percent of the vote. Vitter finished second with 25 percent of the vote.

 

The runoff is on Nov. 21.