WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump traveled to Louisiana on Friday night in a last-minute push to rally his base and prevent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards from winning re-election.
"While every other state is making massive job gains and you don't even notice, Edwards' terrible policies are killing jobs across your state," Trump said on the eve of the state's gubernatorial primary election on Saturday.
Trump didn't endorse either of the two Republicans challenging Edwards and the president urged his supporters to vote for either Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone, who both joined the president on stage.
Both Republican contenders have tied themselves to Trump and during the campaign each has accused the other disloyalty to the president.
If Edwards tops 50 percent of the vote in the so-called "jungle primary" on Saturday, he'll win a second-term. If he falls short, Edwards will then face the top-finishing Republican in a Nov. 16 runoff. Polls show the race too close to call.
Edwards, a moderate who faced backlash from his own party for signing into law a strict anti-abortion bill this summer, is counting on support from people who don't typically vote Democratic, leaning heavily on his Catholic faith and record as an Army Ranger.
But Trump sought on Friday night to align Edwards with the far-left wing of the Democratic Party.
"Send the radical Democratic establishment a loud and clear message," Trump said. "You are going to fire your Democratic governor for doing a lousy job."
Trump also called Democrats' impeachment inquiry "crap" and continued to accuse them of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2016 election.
"They know they can't win on election day so they’re pursuing an illegal invalid and unconstitutional bullshit impeachment," Trump said.
The Trump campaign was caught off-guard by the president's decision to hold a rally in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the day before the election, with the president pre-empting the official announcement with a tweet. It was the president's idea last weekend and though the re-election team usually prefers more time to build a crowd, aides scrambled to pull it off.
A senior Trump campaign official cast the decision to go, in part, as a president who is hungry for wins anywhere he can get them and if the Republicans on Saturday can force a runoff, that's a victory in their book.
In a recent special election in North Carolina, the Trump campaign took credit for helping Republican Dan Bishop inch out a victory after holding a rally the night before the election.
"He rallies Republicans, he speaks to his base," Lenar Whitney, a former state Representative and current member of the Republican National Committee, said of Trump’s visit. "That's going to be the battle cry for this election, and in future elections in 2020."
