2004 United States presidential election in Louisiana

Main article: United States presidential election, 2004

United States presidential election in Louisiana, 2004

November 2, 2004

Nominee George W. Bush John Kerry Party Republican Democratic Home state Texas Massachusetts Running mate Dick Cheney John Edwards Electoral vote 9 0 Popular vote 1,102,169 820,299 Percentage 56.7% 42.2%

County Results   Kerry—70-80%   Kerry—50-60%   Kerry—<50%   Bush—<50%   Bush—50-60%   Bush—60-70%   Bush—70-80%   Bush—80-90%

President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President George W. Bush Republican

The 2004 United States presidential election in Louisiana took place on November 2, 2004 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 9 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Louisiana was won by incumbent President George W. Bush by a 14.5% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Bush would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. Bush's performance was much wider margin than that of his 2000 results which was 6.8% less. The state, like other states in the Deep South, is racially polarized when it comes to presidential elections, as a wide majority of the white population votes Republican, and a wide majority of the black population votes Democratic.

Primaries

• Louisiana Democratic primary, 2004

Campaign

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state by state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.

1. D.C. Political Report: Leans Republican
2. Associated Press: Leans Bush
3. CNN: Bush
4. Cook Political Report: Lean Republican
5. Newsweek: Solid Bush
6. New York Times: Solid Bush
7. Rasmussen Reports: Bush
8. Research 2000: Solid Bush
9. Washington Post: Bush
10. Washington Times: Solid Bush
11. Zogby International: Bush
12. Washington Dispatch: Bush

Polling

Bush won every single pre-election poll, and won each by at least 48% of the vote. The final 3 polls averaged Bush leading 51% to 39%.

Fundraising

Bush raised $1,933,549. Kerry raised $1,303,859.

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.

Analysis

Bush performed here better than he did in 2000. He won four more parishes: Caddio, Bienville, St. Landry, and West Baton Rouge (WBR), but he won each with very slim margins of victory of less than two percent, except for WBR which he won with 54% of the vote indicating that the parish is trending Republican. In the northern portion of the state, he barely lost in Madison and Tensas. The only two parishes in which he got less than 40% of the vote in were East Carroll and Orleans. Bush also won six of seven congressional districts in the state, each with at least 58% of the vote. The Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which covers the parish and city of Orleans, was won by Kerry with 70% of the vote. In other words, no CD in the state was competitive.

Results

United States presidential election in Louisiana, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican Party	George W. Bush	1,102,169	56.7%	9
	Democratic	John Kerry	820,299	42.2%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	7,032	0.4%	0
	American Independent	Michael Peroutka	5,203	0.3%	0
	Libertarian	Michael Badnarik	2,781	0.1%	0
	Independent	Walt Brown	1,795	0.1%	0
	Independent	Gene Amondson	1,566	0.1%	0
	Green	David Cobb	1,276	0.1%	0
	Socialist Workers	Roger Calero	985	0.1%	0
Invalid or blank votes			169,510	1.35%	—
Totals			- 1,943,106	100.00%	9
Voter turnout (Voting age population)					58.5%

Results breakdown

By parish

Parish	Bush#	Bush%	Kerry#	Kerry%	Others#	Others%	Total#
Arcadia	16,083	63.75%	8,937	35.42%	210	0.83%	25,230
Allen	5,140	56.33%	3,791	41.55%	193	2.12%	9,124
Ascension	24,652	63.07%	13,952	35.69%	484	1.24%	39,088
Assumption	4,966	46.26%	5,585	52.03%	184	1.71%	10,735
Avoyelles	8,302	53.48%	6,976	44.93%	247	1.59%	15,525
Beauregard	9,468	71.30%	3,666	27.61%	145	1.09%	13,279
Bienville	3,529	51.33%	3,221	46.85%	125	1.82%	6,875
Bossier	29,921	70.59%	12,116	28.59%	348	0.82%	42,385
Caddo	54,162	50.99%	51,502	48.48%	563	0.53%	106,227
Calcasieu	46,058	57.82%	32,844	41.23%	759	0.95%	79,661
Caldwell	3,308	69.61%	1,384	29.12%	60	1.26%	4,752
Cameron	3,190	68.75%	1,367	29.46%	83	1.79%	4,640
Catahoula	3,215	64.95%	1,673	33.80%	62	1.25%	4,950
Claiborne	3,704	55.87%	2,854	43.05%	72	1.09%	6,630
Concordia	5,426	60.43%	3,446	38.38%	107	1.19%	8,979
De Soto	6,211	54.79%	5,026	44.34%	99	0.87%	11,336
EBR	99,890	54.45%	82,171	44.79%	1,406	0.77%	183,467
East Carroll	1,357	39.97%	1,980	58.32%	58	1.71%	3,395
East Feliciana	5,020	54.57%	4,091	44.47%	89	0.97%	9,200
Evangeline	8,361	58.02%	5,756	39.94%	294	2.04%	14,411
Franklin	6,140	67.49%	2,828	31.08%	130	1.43%	9,098
Grant	5,908	73.97%	1,976	24.74%	103	1.29%	7,987
Iberia	19,416	60.17%	12,423	38.50%	427	1.32%	32,266
Iberville	6,560	44.19%	8,063	54.31%	223	1.50%	14,846
Jackson	5,037	65.89%	2,523	33.01%	84	1.10%	7,644
Jefferson	117,692	61.53%	71,936	37.61%	1,641	0.86%	191,269
Jefferson Davis	8,064	61.49%	4,845	36.94%	206	1.57%	13,115
LaSalle	5,012	80.40%	1,154	18.51%	68	1.09%	6,234
Lafayette	57,730	64.20%	31,205	34.70%	981	1.09%	89,916
Lafourche	22,734	60.04%	14,417	38.08%	712	1.88%	37,863
Lincoln	10,791	59.23%	7,242	39.75%	185	1.02%	18,218
Livingston	33,948	76.77%	9,888	22.36%	382	0.86%	44,218
Madison	2,291	49.03%	2,334	49.95%	48	1.03%	4,673
Morehouse	7,470	57.63%	5,331	41.13%	161	1.24%	12,962
Natchitoches	9,260	54.59%	7,396	43.60%	307	1.81%	16,963
Orleanes	42,760	21.81%	151,686	77.36%	1,640	0.84%	196,086
Ouachita	41,747	64.79%	22,011	34.16%	678	1.05%	64,436
Plaquemines	7,865	64.72%	4,181	34.41%	106	0.87%	12,152
Pointe Coupee	5,429	48.17%	5,712	50.68%	130	1.15%	11,271
Rapides	34,432	63.63%	18,904	34.93%	776	1.43%	54,112
Red River	2,507	52.95%	2,140	45.20%	88	1.86%	4,735
Richland	5,471	63.14%	3,082	35.57%	112	1.29%	8,665
Sabine	6,704	70.07%	2,741	28.65%	122	1.28%	9,567
St. Bernard	19,596	65.68%	9,956	33.37%	285	0.96%	29,837
St. Charles	14,747	61.80%	8,895	37.27%	222	0.93%	23,864
St. Helena	2,235	40.58%	3,173	57.62%	99	1.80%	5,507
St. James	4,545	40.80%	6,406	57.50%	190	1.71%	11,141
St. Jon	8,937	45.83%	10,293	52.78%	270	1.38%	19,500
St. Landry	18,314	49.83%	18,162	49.41%	279	0.76%	36,755
St. Martin	12,091	52.99%	10,319	45.22%	408	1.79%	22,818
St. Mary	12,876	56.75%	9,544	42.07%	267	1.18%	22,687
St. Tammany	75,081	74.70%	24,643	24.52%	787	0.78%	100,511
Tangipahoa	26,170	62.14%	15,335	36.41%	608	1.44%	42,113
Tensas	1,453	49.05%	1,468	49.56%	41	1.38%	2,962
Terrebonne	26,357	64.97%	13,678	33.72%	531	1.31%	40,566
Union	7,457	69.78%	3,058	28.61%	172	1.61%	10,687
Verm	15,069	61.38%	9,083	37.00%	398	1.62%	24,550
Vernon	11,030	72.06%	4,035	26.36%	242	1.58%	15,307
Washington	11,006	61.69%	6,554	36.74%	281	1.58%	17,841
Webster	11,066	60.03%	6,821	37.00%	546	2.96%	18,433
WBR	5,820	53.73%	4,931	45.52%	81	0.75%	10,832
West Carroll	3,730	74.27%	1,231	24.51%	61	1.21%	5,022
West Feliciana	2,832	55.34%	2,214	43.27%	71	1.39%	5,117
Winn	4,367	67.12%	2,056	31.60%	83	1.28%	6,506

By congressional district

Bush won 6 of 7 congressional districts.

District	Bush	Kerry	Representative
1st	71%	28%	David Vitter
			Bobby Jindal
2nd	24%	75%	William J. Jefferson
3rd	58%	41%	Billy Tauzin
			Charlie Melancon
4th	59%	40%	Jim McCrery
5th	62%	37%	Rodney Alexander
6th	59%	40%	Richard H. Baker
7th	70%	30%	Chris John
			Charles Boustany

Electors

Main article: List of United States presidential electors, 2004

Technically the voters of Louisiana cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Louisiana is allocated 9 electors because it has 7 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 9 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 9 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for President and Vice President. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004 to cast their votes for President and Vice President. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 9 were pledged to Bush/Cheney:

1. Tom Angers
2. Michael Bayham
3. David R. Carroll
4. Archie Corder
5. Floyd Gonzalez
6. Gerald Hebert
7. John H. Musser
8. Sal Palmisano
9. Ruth L. Ulrich