At a meeting hosted two weeks ago, on Nov. 14, in Lake Charles by the Southwest Louisiana Republican Roundtable, Calcasieu Clerk of Court Lynn Jones made a bold prediction.
“John Bel Edwards is going to end up running for president,” Jones said. “You watch. Democrats are going to have to start looking elsewhere for a new kind of candidate. If he can get re-elected governor, there’s going to be a push.”
Maybe the Boston Globe was listening to Jones that night, because two days later reporter James Pindell posted a story online entitled “20 candidates who could run in 2020 — Democrats and Republicans.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards was the first name on the list.
“If Democrats believe they need the ‘bubba vote’ — a.k.a. white, working-class men — they could look to Edwards, who was elected last year as Louisiana’s governor,” Pindell wrote, adding, “Edwards would also run into the same bad timing that former governor Bobby Jindal faced: He would need to figure out how to seek reelection in Louisiana in 2019 and essentially run for president at the same time. Jindal passed on 2012 for this reason.”