"Didn't Get Enough Votes", 1980
Though he maintains Democratic affiliation, Dunn endorsed Republican President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., in the 1976 presidential election. In 1980, he ran for the Fourth Congressional District seat then held for a single term by former Representative Anthony Claude "Buddy" Leach, then of Leesville, the seat of Vernon Parish in western Louisiana. He finished fifth among the six candidates, including former state Senator Cecil K. Carter, Jr., of Shreveport, state Senator Foster Campbell of Bossier Parish, and state Representative Loy F. Weaver of Claiborne Parish.
The seat was won by Roemer, who unseated Leach in the "runoff", officially the Louisiana general election, which was held on the same day that Ronald W. Reagan unseated Democrat Jimmy Carter for the presidency. When asked about his congressional race, the tight-lipped Dunn said simply, "I did not get enough votes." He declined to support either Leach or Roemer in the second round of balloting. Dunn received 8,208 ballots (6.7 percent). As predicted by some Republicans, Dunn polled more than enough votes to keep the Republican candidate, James H. "Jimmy" Wilson of Vivian, from a first- or second-place primary finish, presuming that Dunn voters' second choice in most cases may have been Wilson because the two shared ideas of fiscal conservatism.
Dunn retired in 2010 from the administrator's position at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. He was succeeded by Wayne Waddell, who resigned from the Louisiana House of Representatives to accept the position.
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