LAFAYETTE — Republican state Sen. Jean-Paul Coussan has been elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, clinching the only seat up for grabs this year on one of the state’s most powerful political bodies.
Coussan held a decisive 54% of the vote versus Democrat Nick Laborde’s 26% and Republican Julie Quinn’s 20% after the Secretary of State totaled all ballots Tuesday. The conservative real estate lawyer even clinched a 43% majority in the Democratic-heavy East Baton Rouge Parish.
“I’m optimistic for the future,” Coussan said at his election watch party Tuesday night at Another Broken Egg Café. “Louisiana can be a leader in affordable energy.”
The Public Service Commission, a five-member elected regulatory body that can directly impact the pocketbooks of Louisiana residents through the cost of energy, is by some accounts the state’s most powerful political body that people haven’t heard of or know little about. It oversees utility companies that provide electricity, water, natural gas and telecommunications services for most of Louisiana. These include investor-owned utilities such as Cleco and Entergy, as well as member-owned rural power cooperatives. It also regulates pipelines and tow truck services.
Louisiana’s PSC districts are larger than its congressional districts, giving the individual commissioners larger constituencies than the state’s U.S. House representatives.
Elected to the Louisiana Senate just last year, Coussan entered the PSC District 2 race after Commissioner Craig Greene announced he wouldn’t seek reelection. As a moderate Republican, Greene was the lone swing vote on the commission between two Democrats and two other Republicans.
The significant influence of the District 2 seat prompted Ballotpedia to declare the race a “2024 battleground election” — a designation the site uses only for a small percentage of races that are expected “to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in governments or to be particularly competitive or compelling.”
District 2 spans 13 parishes: East Feliciana, Lafayette, Lafourche, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Martin, Terrebonne, West Feliciana and portions of Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberville and West Baton Rouge.
Coussan said most of his campaigning was about “shaking hands” and meeting voters at different events across the district.
“I feel like I left a footprint in all 13 parishes,” Coussan said Tuesday night.
Based on his discussions with voters on the campaign trail, Coussan said most of the residents he has met are concerned with the resiliency of Louisiana’s infrastructure and the various storm restoration fees that utility companies charge. He said he plans to do a “deep dive” into those issues before he takes office in January.