The battle for Louisiana Secretary of State heated up Monday night as candidates discussed their ideals and made closing statements in front of a live audience.
The forum was hosted by LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication and moderated by several LSU students, including Tiger TV news director Laryssa Bonacquisti.
Only six of the nine candidates on the ballot showed up for the invite-only debate. The contenders included acting Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, state Rep. Julie Stokes (R., Kenner), state Rep. Rick Edmonds (R., Baton Rouge), former state Sen. A.G. Crowe (R., Slidell), Renee Fontenot Free and Gwen Collins-Greenup.
Ardoin emphasized the importance of motivating students to go to the polls for the current election by opening new avenues to vote.
“We also passed legislation to allow your student ID – if it has a picture and a signature – to allow you to participate in the election,” he said.
Candidates also talked about their wish to protect citizens’ rights to vote. Stokes stressed voter education to check voter fraud by gaining more contact information from voters, but she said she wouldn’t step on her constituents’ toes in the election.
“One thing I’m not going to do is play politics with your right to vote, ever,” she said.
In his closing remarks, Ardoin appeared to jab at Stokes, who ran for state treasurer in 2017 but ultimately dropped out of the race when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“This office is not about whether you’re a CPA, or voting yes or no on taxes,” Ardoin said. “This office is about protecting elections.”
Manship School dean Martin Johnson was impressed with the attendance at the forum. He said the coordination between LSU President F. King Alexander’s office and the Manship School went about as smoothly as he could’ve predicted.
“The director of the O’Reilly Center, Jenee Slocum and her team, put in a lot of hours working with the campaigns, working with our panelists, working with the president’s office to pull off the event, and they did an excellent job,” he said.
The special election held for this year’s race was due to the early resignation of former Secretary of State Tom Schedler in May following sexual harassment misconduct.