Dem
51
GOP
49
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) flirted briefly with a run for the Louisiana governor's mansion. But yesterday, he announced that he wasn't running, and that he would stay in the Senate.
For some politicians, it is more attractive to be the biggest fish in a small pond than to be a medium-to-large-sized fish in a giant pond. That line of thinking doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us in this case, since Kennedy basically has a job for life in the Senate, whereas the governorship of Louisiana is pretty weak, power-wise, and is term-limited.
What presumably sealed the deal for Kennedy, however, was that victory was far from a sure thing. The Republican field is loaded and, even if he landed the nomination, Louisiana is like many Southern states in that it elects Republicans to nearly all federal offices, but is more than willing to elect Democrats as governor. The current governor of the state, John Bel Edwards, is a Democrat, as have been four of the six governors before him. Actually, you can make that 13 of the last 15 before him, if you really want, but that's cheating because then you're including the era of one-party, Southern Democratic rule.
Anyhow, the Senator has clearly decided that a Senate term in the hand is better than two gubernatorial terms in the bush. It was not especially likely that the Democrats would have won the seat, even if it was open, so Kennedy's decision doesn't affect the 2024 math in any meaningful way. (Z)