Edwin Edwards - Defeat: Edwards Vs. Roemer, 1987

Defeat: Edwards Vs. Roemer, 1987

Several notable candidates lined up to face Edwards in the 1987 gubernatorial election. Perhaps his strongest early challenger was Republican Congressman Bob Livingston. Also in the race were Billy Tauzin, a then-Democratic Cajun congressman, Democratic Secretary of State Jim Brown, and a Democratic congressman from north Louisiana, Buddy Roemer, who climbed up from a series of very low early-campaign polls.

Louis J. Roussel, Jr., a businessman from New Orleans who began his career as a bus driver, contributed $600,000 to Edwards in the losing race in 1987. Roussel had formerly been a large donor to Bill Dodd, whose son, William Ford Dodd, ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in the 1987 primary election.