Last week, we heard from Julia Letlow after she officially became the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
Now, we’re hearing from her Democratic opponent.
Jamie Davis says while he’s not surprised that he emerged as the Democratic nominee, he is surprised by how he beat Gary Crockett by 60 points in the runoff.
“I knew that we had put in the work, and I knew we had planted a good seed all over the state,” the farmer and former Tensas Parish police juror said. “What I didn’t expect was to reap such a bountiful harvest.”
Davis notes that in both the primary and the runoff, nearly as many Democrats voted for him as the number of Republicans who voted for Letlow.
In the May 16th primary, Julia Letlow got 179,876 votes from Republican voters, while Davis got 163,507 votes from Democratic voters.
In the June 27th runoff, those vote totals were very similar – 179,971 for Letlow and 156,776 for Davis.
Davis points out that at each juncture, Letlow spent far more money in her campaign than he did in his.
“If we look at the ratio of the amount spent in each of our elections, the amount of money that was spent for her to get the votes she got versus the amount of money that was spent to get the votes that we got, it’s a tremendous amount different,” says Davis.
As such, Davis rejects the notion from political analysts that Letlow will run away with the general election.
“The seat is open,” Davis points out, alluding to the fact that the incumbent, Bill Cassidy, lost in the GOP primary. “This race is not a race that’s anointed to anybody. We are all going to have to work in order to get our people turned out. And I believe who does the best job of getting their people turned out is who wins this election.”
Of course, it’s going to take a lot of money to run a political campaign, and Davis says he’s going to get some help from the Democratic National Committee.
“I’ve been told that they’re coming to the Louisiana and they’re going to help,” Davis says. “Now what I don’t know yet is what level that they’re going to help at.”
Davis says he’s putting together a campaign that will resonate with Louisianans of all backgrounds.
“We are a campaign that is built for Louisiana – not just one section of Louisiana, not just one party of Louisiana, not just a Louisiana that’s black or a Louisiana that’s white,” says Davis. “We want to make sure that all of Louisiana is taken care of, from the bottom to the top. We will fight for the issue of the healthcare. We will fight for the issues of education. And we will fight to uphold the Constitution.”