W. Fox Mc Keithen - Republican For Secretary of State, 1991

Republican For Secretary of State, 1991

Two years later, he switched to the Republican Party, despite opposition from his father and daughter, Marjorie A. McKeithen (born 1965). McKeithen faced an even closer race in 1991. Two Democrats, Mary Chehardy (later a Republican) and Doug Schmidt, challenged him. McKeithen led in the jungle primary, with 629,237 votes (46 percent) to Schmidt's 387,243 (28 percent). Close behind was Chehardy with 357,173 (26 percent). Schmidt, who used the expression "Get the Fox out of the Henhouse," advanced to the general election with McKeithen. In the showdown, McKeithen prevailed by 9,151 votes, a margin similar to David C. Treen's plurality over Democrat Louis Lambert in the 1979 gubernatorial contest. Returns gave McKeithen 827,506 votes to Schmidt's 818,355.

In subsequent elections, McKeithen was often endorsed by Democrats and worked well with members from both parties. His folksy manner meant that he was generally popular with voters despite adopting such unpopular positions as raising the pay of elected state officials. In his last race in 2003, he even carried the endorsement of organized labor, which rarely supports Republicans.

During January 2004, McKeithen supervised the combining of the former elections department into the secretary of state's office. A few weeks later, when voting machines were slow to arrive in New Orleans in time for the 2004 elections, he helped deliver them himself. McKeithen's gravestone in Caldwell Parish lists his principal accomplishments as the restoration of the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, the Cotton Museum, the Delta Music Museum in Ferriday, and the Louisiana Exhibition Building in Shreveport.