The Republican Party of Louisiana was founded as the "Friends of Universal Suffrage" on November 4, 1865, by a group of whites,
free men of color, and newly emancipated
freedmen led by
Benjamin Flanders. He had been an Alderman of New Orleans from 1847 to 1852. Constitutional amendments after the
American Civil War granted citizenship and suffrage to freedmen, most of whom affiliated with the Republican Party that had gained their freedom. Among the achievements of the biracial state legislature during the
Reconstruction era was founding public education and some charitable institutions. The party held a convention in June 1867, during which the party was divided between a pro-civil rights wing seeking integration and a wing led by
Henry C. Warmoth. That same month
James Longstreet joined the party. Threatened by black majorities in several areas and unhappy with the outcome of the war, white
insurgents challenged voting by blacks, and elections were increasingly disrupted by violence and fraud in the period of 1868 through the Reconstruction era. Chapters of the
White League arose across the state in the 1874 as a white militia that worked for the Democratic Party to achieve the overthrow of the Reconstruction government. Notable extreme events of white violence against blacks in this period were the
Colfax Massacre and the
Coushatta Massacre. In addition, armed Democratic forces of the White League occupied
New Orleans and took over state offices (then located in the city) after the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872. In 1898 the Democratic-dominated Louisiana legislature followed Mississippi (and other Southern states) in passing a new constitution and laws with provisions that created barriers to voter registration and voting by blacks in the state, and also adversely affected many poor whites. These provisions included a
poll tax,
literacy test,
grandfather clauses and similar requirements that were applied in a discriminatory manner against African Americans. They were essentially excluded from the political system for decades, depleting the Republican Party. The Democratic white-dominated state legislature passed racial segregation and other
Jim Crow laws that enforced second-class status for African Americans.
Disenfranchisement of African Americans kept the Republican Party hollowed out well into the 20th century. In the first part of the 20th century up to 1970, tens of thousands of blacks left Louisiana for northern and western states in the
Great Migration, contributing to changes in demographics of some areas of the state. As leaders of the national Democratic Party had supported the
civil rights movement, after African Americans regained the power to vote and re-entered politics, most affiliated with the Democratic Party. Since the late 20th century, the Republican Party in Louisiana and other southern states has had a resurgence fed by the movement of white conservatives from the Democratic Party to its ranks. This change was seen first in their voting for Republican presidential candidates, in states across the South. Until the early 1950s, when blacks were still disenfranchised, no Republican won a single
electoral vote in any Louisiana presidential election. But in 1956, the state supported national hero and Republican presidential candidate General
Dwight David Eisenhower, who was admired for his leadership in World War II. His was the first of nine Republican presidential victories in the state among the 14 presidential campaigns from 1956 to 2008 inclusive. Since the 1990s, Louisiana's U.S. House delegation has overall had a Republican tilt, and the number of Republicans elected to both houses of the
Louisiana legislature has increased incrementally. , Republicans had not had the majority in either the Louisiana House or state Senate since the Reconstruction era. The first Republicans elected to the state house in Louisiana in the 20th century were
Morley A. Hudson and
Taylor W. O'Hearn in 1964, the year that the federal
Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The next year the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, ensuring that African Americans would again be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote in Louisiana and other states. The first Republican elected to the State Senate in Louisiana in the 20th century was
Edwards Barham in 1975. Although it was years before Republicans commanded a majority of the state house, they often secured important leadership posts. A notable example is
John Hainkel, the first person in U.S. history to have been elected by his peers in any state legislature as both Speaker of the House
and as President of the Senate.
David C. Treen was elected as governor in 1979; he was the first Republican elected to the office since the Reconstruction era.
Charlton Lyons had made the first serious Republican gubernatorial campaign in 1964, when blacks were still disenfranchised. He drew a then record 37.5 percent of the general white election vote. Drawing on increasing support in the state, Republicans have won the Louisiana governorship most of the time since Treen's election. In 2004
David Vitter, a
U.S. representative, was elected as Louisiana's first Republican
United States Senator since the Reconstruction era, disenfranchisement at the turn of the century, and realignment of political parties in the state. the Republican Party holds all of the statewide elected offices, which include Governor
Bobby Jindal, Lieutenant Governor
Jay Dardenne, Secretary of State
Tom Schedler, State Treasurer
John Neely Kennedy, Attorney General
Buddy Caldwell, Commissioner of Agriculture & Forestry
Mike Strain, and Commissioner of Insurance
Jim Donelon. In 2009 election of Republican former U.S. Representative
Clyde C. Holloway to the
Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates utility companies, gave that body its first-ever Republican majority. In 2010, Republicans gained a majority of both houses of the Louisiana state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, when party affiliations were quite different. In 1992, the Louisiana Republican Party refused to censure its member,
David Duke, who was a former leader of the white supremacist terrorist organization
Ku Klux Klan and who was known for racist views. Though in 2016, they did denounce him as he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate. In 2021, the Louisiana Republican Party censured Senator
Bill Cassidy for voting to convict
Donald Trump in the impeachment trial over Trump's role in inciting a
pro-Trump mob to
storm the U.S. Capitol. In January 2023 the party voted to condemn the Biden Administration's
prisoner exchange with Russia for Brittney Griner. Though it was later taken out, many members wanted to add language to the resolution describing Griner as "LGBT woke". ==Organization==