Louisiana Secretary of State officials confirmed Thursday that the drive to recall Governor Jeff Landry officially failed. The effort, led by activist Marian Gbaiwon and the group Louisiana Deserves Better, never submitted the required signatures before the Nov. 2 deadline.
Why the petition fell short
State law requires a recall petition to gather hand‑signed signatures from at least 20% of active registered voters. With just over 2.5 million registered voters in May, the petition needed roughly 500,000 signatures to trigger a recall election. Gbaiwon told supporters in a Facebook video that she chose not to turn in any signatures because the collection fell short of the required number and she did not want the signatures to become public record.
“Why would we submit them and subject people unnecessarily to unnecessary scrutiny?” she said.
Volunteer and financial concerns
The campaign began to unravel over the summer as dozens of volunteers left, citing allegations of mismanagement. Critics claimed Gbaiwon failed to be transparent about how donations were spent and did not provide an accounting of signatures collected.
Governor Landry’s response
Governor Landry took to X (formerly Twitter) to celebrate the outcome, calling the failure of the recall effort and the recent election of a Republican U.S. Senator a “bright spot” for conservatives amid Democratic gains in the midterms. He wrote, “Despite widespread media coverage seemingly cheering on the recall effort, no registrar in any Louisiana parish has reported receiving signatures by the November 2 deadline. Our voters made clear they want conservative leadership, common‑sense solutions, and greater opportunities.”
Recall process explained
When a statewide recall petition is filed, signatures are reported to each parish registrar of voters for certification. Certified signatures would then be sent to the Secretary of State’s office, which forwards them to the governor for a call‑for‑election. Because the governor was the subject of this petition, the final tally would have been handled by the Secretary of State.
Other recall efforts in the state
At the same time, a separate petition to recall Attorney General Liz Murrill remains active. Filed May 13, it also requires roughly 500,000 signatures and has a deadline of the upcoming Monday. Murrill’s office has not responded to requests for comment.
No statewide official has been recalled in Louisiana for six decades. While 76 recall elections have removed local officials—mostly mayors, school‑board members, and city councilors—statewide attempts have consistently fallen short of the massive signature threshold.
Historical context
Recent large‑scale recall attempts, such as the 2022 effort to remove former New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, failed after only a fraction of the required signatures were validated. Similar outcomes occurred in 2017 when Jefferson Parish President Mike Yenni’s petition missed the 90,000‑signature goal, and in 2024 when St. Tammany’s coroner Christopher Tape’s recall did not gather enough support.
The failure of the Landry recall underscores the difficulty of mobilizing half‑a‑million voters across the state and reinforces the message that Louisiana’s electorate continues to back conservative leadership.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
