Louisiana House candidate Elbert Guillory released an ad explaining his decision to switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, arguing that the Republican Party has a history of championing the rights of the black community.
“It was the right decision, not just for me, but for all my brothers and sisters in the black community,” Guillory said in the ad, explaining his decision. “Democrats have created the illusion that their policies and policies are in the best interest of black people. Somehow they forget that the Republican Party was founded in 1842 as an abolitionist movement.”
The ad ran a little more than a week before Guillory faces off against four other candidates in Louisiana’s primary, where he is the only Republican candidate.
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Former Louisiana state senator Elbert Guillory is running for Congress. (screen capture)
Louisiana uses a majority voting system, where all candidates participate in the same election, regardless of party. If a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, he or she wins the election outright. If no candidate meets the 50% threshold, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff next month.
Mr. Guillory served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009 and in the State Senate from 2009 to 2016. He switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican in 2013 while serving in the state Senate.
Guillory described the decision as a simple one in a new ad, arguing that Democrats have done little to actually help Black communities.
“The Democratic Party, on the other hand, was the party of Jim Crow. It was the Democratic Party that defended the rights of slaveholders,” Guillory said. “While it was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who championed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, it was Senate Democrats who filibustered the bill.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower poses for a portrait before his inauguration as president of Columbia University on June 1, 1948 in New York City. (Irving Haberman/IH Images/Getty Images)
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Guillory is pitching to voters in districts that have become more competitive for Democrats since the state’s map was redrawn in 2022, Cook Political Report said as of Oct. 22. He calls it a “solid Democratic Party.”
Nevertheless, Guillory stands by his decision to change political parties.
“At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great, powerful, big government can be the beneficiary of social justice for all Americans,” he said in the ad. “But the left is only interested in one thing: control, and they disguise this control as charities like welfare and food stamps.”
A voter services van in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, October 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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“These programs were never designed to lift Americans out of poverty,” he continued, “they were always intended as a mechanism for politicians to control black communities. For that matter, the idea that everyone needs the government to understand their future in life is despicable.
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