St. James Parish votes majority Republican at top of ballot for first time since 1972

Gramercy, La. (WVUE) - For the first time since President Nixon in 1972, St. James Parish voted to elect a Republican president this week.

The parish of about 20,000 residents along the east and west banks of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a known Democratic holdout in what was once the majority-Democratic Deep South.

But St. James, along with Iberville Parish just up the road, voted 50 to 49 percent for former President Donald Trump over current Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris received 5,792 votes to Trump's 5,902 votes.

"This parish is more male dominated. Fathers, households. I'm not surprised at all," said Amber Edwards, a St. James Parish voter.

"People aren't really as trusting in a woman president, which I am, I was, I have no problem saying that," Edwards said. "But hopefully a new time will be coming soon."

If Harris was looking at parish-by-parish data in Louisiana, she would have seen St. James and St. John the Baptist are the two parishes in the New Orleans metro area that reliably vote for Democrats at the top of the ticket.

But some voters said they cast their ballots Tuesday with change in mind.

"I think most of the community is Republican now," said another St. James voter. "We're looking for a change again, you know. It's been going downhill, like we all know, for the last four years of course."

In the 2020 election between President Joe Biden and Trump, Biden squeezed out a victory with a margin of just five percent, compared to 1996 when former President Bill Clinton won the parish with a whopping 41 percent margin of support.

Or in 1988, when Democrat Michael Dukakis earned 63 percent to former President George H. W. Bush's 35 percent.

"For the Democrats, it wasn't a winning coalition," said Fox 8 political analyst Mike Sherman.

Sherman said the results in St. James are indicative of two trends writ large.

"First, we saw more motivation among Donald Trump's voters, whether it's members of his base or the new voters he brought into the coalition," he said. "Secondly, is an ability to find black male voters, minority voters, and have them cast a ballot for Republicans."

Sherman holds that the Democratic Party, both in Louisiana and nationwide, will have to look inward and adjust messaging and direction if they want to remain competitive.

"We see minority voters voting for Republicans, particularly Latinos, in this last election, and there's just not enough voters for Democrats to be in the majority in a state like Louisiana," he said. "Unless the party diversifies its views and has a larger tent."