Louisiana State Representative Jeremy LaComb flipped from being a Democrat to a Republican for reasons he has not yet explained, according to Just The News. His flip has increased the Republican majority in the state House of Representatives to 71 members out of 105 seats.
Mr. LaComb is the second state representative in the Bayou State to flip from the Democratic party to the Republican party. A representative, Francis Thompson, flipped because he felt his brand of conservatism would be better represented by the Grand Old Party. Mr. Thompson’s defection gave the Republicans a 70-seat supermajority.
Louisiana’s Democratic Caucus Chair Sam Jenkins said about Mr. LaComb’s flip that “House Democrats will continue to stand up for the working people of Louisiana. We look forward to working with Rep. LaCombe during this legislative session to increase wages, lower costs, improve our schools and pass insurance reform that benefit Louisiana families and small businesses.”
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This development stands in comparison to the recent defection to the Republican party by a North Carolina Democrat. In that case, the defector, Tricia Cotham, gave Republicans a veto-proof supermajority. Though the Democratic minority leader was less chivalrous than his Louisiana counterpart by calling on Cotham to resign her seat.
The move proved to be yet another victory for Republicans on the state level, however, as legislators become increasingly GOP-dominated.
While not a defection story, the election of Dan Knodl (R) in Wisconsin meant that the supermajority of Republicans to the state senate in that battleground state was preserved. Wisconsin Republicans may use that supermajority to impeach soft-on-crime judges. Unlike Wisconsin, however, Louisiana and North Carolina are much more reliably Republican states.
Nevertheless, Louisiana, like North Carolina, has a Democratic governor right now. Indeed, like North Carolina, that governor, John Bel Edwards (D-LA), is on his second term. That Democratic candidates win on occasion the governorship of erstwhile reliably and safe Republican states is not uniquely unprecedented given that the opposite phenomenon also happens. The governor of Vermont, Phil Scott, is a Republican despite the state’s heavy Democratic lean as was the former governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker (R), and the former governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan (R).
Given the increasing number of Republicans in state houses across the country in states in which Democrats run the executive, the GOP will have more of an ability to hold them accountable and pursue their own priorities.
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