Edwin Edwards (7 August 1927-12 July 2021) was Governor of Louisiana (D) from 9 May 1972 to 10 March 1980, succeeding John McKeithen and preceding Dave Treen; he also served from 12 March 1984 to 14 March 1988, succeeding Treen and preceding Buddy Roemer, and again from 13 January 1992 to 8 January 1996, succeeding Roemer and preceding Mike Foster. Edwards was popular for his support for civil rights and progressivism and for his witty sense of humor, but he served time in prison for corruption. Nevertheless, he was a beloved governor, and he briefly co-starred with his wife in the reality television show The Governor's Wife from 27 October to 17 November 2013.
Biography[]
Edwin Edwards was born in Marksville, Avoyelle Parish, Louisiana in 1927 to a family of mostly Louisiana Creole descent; he also assumed that he had Cajun ancestry. His father was a sharecropper who owned 40 acres of his aunt's land, and Edwards grew up on a farm. Edwards served in the US Navy at the end of World War II and initially planned to become a preacher, but he instead became a lawyer in Acadia Parish. In 1954, he was elected to the Crowley City Council, and he was elected to the State Senate in 1964 as a Democratic Party member. On 2 October 1965, he entered the US House of Representatives as the congressman from the 7th district, succeeding Ashton Thompson; he would serve until 9 May 1972, preceding John Breaux.
Governor of Louisiana[]
Edwards at a press rally
In 1970, Edwards was one of few southern congressmen to support a five-year extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and he won the 1972 gubernatorial election, with African-Americans, Creoles, and Cajuns in the south of the state supporting him. Edwards was adept at making political deals and alliances, and he promised to reform the state. He cast himself as a populist in the tradition of Huey Long, and he decided to limit state elections to two rounds, indirectly assisting the Republican Party of Louisiana in its rise to power. He also appointed his wife, Elaine Edwards, to a short tenure in the US Senate in August–November 1972. In 1973, he passed a new state constitution, abolished 80 state agencies, and remodelled the state after the federal government.
Policies[]
Edwards in a news interview, 1983
Edwards, a supporter of civil rights, appointed several African-Americans and women to cabinet positions, and he won 62.3% of the vote in the 1975 election, being re-elected as Governor. In 1980, he temporarily left politics after being forced to leave the governorship by term limits, but he would win the 1983 election to return to the governor's office; he famously said, "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy". State finances crashed under his third administration due to the decline of oil prices, however, decreasing tax income.
Legal troubles []
The 86-year-old Edwards with his 35-year-old wife, Trina
Edwards' popularity waned as the economy declined, and he was tried for mail fraud, obstruction of justice, and bribery in February 1985 after he was investigated for being involved in a kickback scheme. He was acquitted by a Louisiana jury, but his name recognition led to him losing the 1987 election. In 1991, he defeated Republican Party and neo-Nazi gubernatorial candidate David Duke, claiming that Duke and him were alike only in that they were "wizards under the sheets", referring to Duke's Ku Klux Klan membership and Edward's supposed sexual prowess. He won the election in a landslide, beating Duke 61% to 39%. Edwards promoted casino gambling in his state, issued an executive order that forbade anti-LGBT discrimination, and championed minorities, unions, Cajuns, and lower-income voters. In 1997, he was indicted for bribery after he was caught on camera giving Congressman Cleo Fields $20,000 in cash, and he was imprisoned from 2002 to 2011, leaving probation in 2013 due to good behavior. In 2014, he lost a race for the 6th congressional district at the age of 87, and he later became a reality television show star. He died in Gonzales, Louisiana in 2021 at the age of 93.