The Louisiana gubernatorial election took place on Oct. 24, 2015 and John Bel Edwards (Democrat) and David Vitter (Republican) received the two largest numbers of votes.

Since neither of the candidates received over 50 percent, the two will compete against one another in the general election runoff on Nov. 21, 2015. In the state of Louisiana, if no candidate receives 50 percent or more of the primary vote, a general election runoff is required and as of Nov. 3, Edwards leads Vitter by 20 percent, according to a poll from WVLA-TV.

“David Vitter is just another Jindal in my opinion,” Laure Chamberlain Kasovich, instructor of mass communications and webmaster for college of arts and sciences, said. “He is not doing anything for higher education and is just ethically and morally a bad man, but anything is better than Jindal.”

Another poll released by WVLA on Monday asked 600 likely voters whom they would vote for if the runoff was held today. 52 percent would vote for Edwards while 32 percent would vote for Vitter. The other 16 percent was undecided, but when asked if they had a preference 54 percent leaned towards Edwards and 35 percent leaned towards Vitter.

“Jindal cut the budget for education systems in Louisiana after we already have one of the lowest in the country,” Jackie Johnson, biology major, said. “I think we should put our support in the candidate that wants to raise the budget and support schooling more.”

While speaking to supporters, Edwards told his backers that Vitter will continue the policies of Jindal. However, Vitter continues to say he will run on conservative values and describes himself as a political outsider. Vitter was in the lead until his eight-year-old prostitution scandal resonated with voters. Vitter has dodged talk about the scandal and suggests that he and his voters have moved on.

According to FOX 8 political analyst Mike Sherman both candidates have a lot of similar stances on many issues, even though they are from different parties. Sherman stated that the big question coming in the next few weeks will be Edward’s stance on charter schools, specifically in New Orleans. That is one of the issues that the candidates are starting to differ in opinions. While Vitter has voiced that he is strongly in favor of charter schools, Edward’s spokesman made a statement saying Edwards believes charter schools serve the needs of the community but he opposes for-profit charters because “kids aren’t for sale.”

Although a lot of Louisiana continues to fall in the educational standings of America, students around the Nicholls State University campus do not seem to be paying attention to the election when asked what candidate they are leaning towards in the runoff.
“As students, I think it’s important for us to vote on these important issues, because it does affect us and we do need to be concerned about higher education,” Cari Spain said.