Democratic candidate for governor Shawn Wilson visited LSU on Monday for a town-hall style event sponsored by the LSU College Democrats.
Wilson, who recently left his post as state transportation secretary, kicked off his candidacy in March and earned the endorsement of Gov. John Bel Edwards shortly after.
So far, Wilson is the only Democrat in the race. And, with Edwards being the only Democrat who has won statewide office since 2007, he may have his work cut out for him.
The evening crowd filled more than half the seats lining the French House’s salon, with many students curious to hear what Wilson had to say.
“I don’t know much about him, but from my understanding he’s better than the rest,” said Emily Clarke, an international studies senior, before the event started.
Wilson began his roughly 30-minute opening speech talking about his childhood years in New Orleans’ Algiers neighborhood; his initial interest in nursing as a college student at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then called University of Southwestern Louisiana, or USL; and his eventual discovery of a passion for public service.
“I went to USL as a nursing student, thinking I wanted to deal with nursing because the truth is, it was a 10:1 female to male ratio, and they had a 100% passage rate on the state test, and so I thought I could make money, I could find a wife, I could be happy,” Wilson said. “I did find a wife, I don’t make a lot of money, but I am damn happy doing public service.”
Wilson climbed the ladder in the transportation department, he said, first serving as chief of staff for Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s transportation secretary and for eight more years under two of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s appointments.
Then, when Edwards took office, he appointed Wilson as transportation secretary.
“As someone who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations, we have done exceptionally well working across the line,” Wilson said.
Wilson positioned himself in the center lane of the race, decrying extremists on both sides of the political spectrum and encouraging bipartisan governing.
“We need a governor, and we need legislators who will be able to have an adult conversation in finding compromise, because you’re never going to get everything you want. And in my 25 years of service, we have achieved compromise, we have reached that on all manner of issues,” Wilson said in a closing pitch.
After the speech, Wilson opened the floor and fielded questions from the audience for about an hour on a variety of topics, expressing his views on the environment, criminal justice, the economy and more.
One such response touched on a topic especially relevant to LSU—a recent proposal in the Louisiana legislature that could ban teachings of diversity, equity and inclusion in all Louisiana schools that receive public money.
“As a person of color, as someone that was in a lower socioeconomic bracket, I cannot exclude that from my thinking in any way. When you try to legislate that out, that to me is overreach,” Wilson said in response to a question about the bill.
Wilson stuck around for informal conversations with students and staff until well after the event ended.
Students who attended the event were positive in their appraisals of Wilson, particularly when it came to how he communicated his policies.
“I think what he said was very insightful, and I think his policies will help Louisiana in the future,” said Garret Gray, a computer science major.
Another student agreed.
“I feel like most of the solutions he provided to the questions people were asking were really well formatted,” said Yuvia Cornejo, a political science major. “He took in the question, restated it for us, provided his background on why he is qualified to solve those problems, and then gave the plans to solve them, which I think is the best way to answer all these questions because they’re so heavy.”
Louisiana holds its gubernatorial election on Oct. 14.
Gubernatorial candidate and former State Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson answers questions on Monday, April 24, 2023, inside the French House on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, La.
