Charles Langston:Outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards touts accomplishments in farewell address

BATON ROUGE,Charles Langston La (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards used his farewell speech Wednesday to recount his administration’s accomplishments over the last eight years, including the state’s Medicaid expansion, climbing out of a historic budget deficit, advancing criminal justice reform, increasing teacher salaries and implementing coastal restoration plans.

The 57-year-old, who was first elected in 2015, is leaving office after serving two terms. The lone Democratic governor in the Deep South, Edwards was unable to seek reelection due to consecutive term limits and Republicans seized the opportunity to regain the governor’s mansion. Edwards successor, Republican Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, will be inaugurated Monday.

“We did put people over politics and, without question, by almost every available metric, we leave Louisiana much better than we found it eight years ago,” Edwards said Wednesday evening. “I leave the governor’s office as optimistic as I have ever been about our future.”

Surrounded by supporters, staff, friends and family — including two of his three adult children — the governor and first lady Donna Edwards delivered farewell addresses in their hometown of Amite. Absent from the room was the Edwards’ oldest daughter, who is pregnant and had arrived at a New Orleans hospital shortly before the event, with Donna Edwards exclaiming, “We will have a baby.”

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Outside of thanking staff, supporters and his wife — who has used her platform to raise awareness of human trafficking, among other issues — John Bel Edwards highlighted ways he said the said the state has improved over the past eight years.

When Edwards first entered the governor’s mansion, following former Gov. Bobby Jindal, he inherited a more than $1 billion budget shortfall. Edwards leaves office with the budget now balanced and this past legislative session there were millions of dollars in surplus funds.

“Simply put, we are in excellent financial shape,” he said.

Edwards’ first act as governor was to expand Medicaid, describing it as the “easiest big decision I made in this office.”

“Because of that decision, our uninsured rate is now below the national average, the state has saved money and addressed our fiscal problems, hospitals and other providers are better reimbursed, and not a single rural hospital has closed in the state,” Edwards said. “That is a far cry from some of our neighbors.”

Among other things that occurred under his administration, Edwards touted investments in education — including raising teacher salaries, early childhood education and higher education — allocating $5.5 billion to infrastructure projects such as road improvements and coastal restoration in a state that has had a front-row seat to the impact of climate change.

Some of Edwards’ goals were not completed while he was in office, including increasing the minimum age, adding exceptions to the state’s near total abortion ban and eliminating the state’s death penalty. Each issue was challenged in the GOP-dominated Legislature.

The past eight years have not gone without historical crises either, including COVID-19, flooding, wildfires and hurricanes.

Edwards said he has been dubbed by some as the “crisis governor,” noting that over his past two terms — based on data from his administration — there have been over 244 emergencies, resulting in around 50 state disaster declarations and 21 federal disaster declarations.

“From COVID to hurricanes to the budget and everything in between, I looked at situations from every perspective and collectively, with the best advisors a governor could ask for, made decisions that I felt would best serve the people of Louisiana,” Edwards said.

Edwards, who before entering the political world had opened a civil law practice, has been fairly vague about life once he leaves the governor’s mansion. He has told reporters in recent interviews that he plans to move back to Tangipahoa Parish with his wife and go “back into private business.”

While Edwards said that he has “no expectation or intention” to run for political office in the future, he hasn’t outright said that he has ruled it out either.

“Louisiana, I will forever be your humble servant,” Edwards said Wednesday. “But for now … Amite, I’m coming home with a grateful heart.”