Secretary of State Nancy Landry speaks during an interview at her office on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Secretary of State Nancy Landry speaks during an interview at her office on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry has been busy these past seven months.
After taking the helm as the state's chief election officer in January, Landry crafted a vision for her agency that embraces the sorts of other Republican-led states have passed in the years after the 2020 presidential election. Some of those measures, long sought by her predecessor Kyle Ardoin, were struck down by former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
But Nancy Landry has found an ally in Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed each of her proposals into law this year. The laws — which create new absentee voting and voter registration requirements and require an additional yearly canvass of voter registration records, among other changes — are controversial.
Some have from advocates who say they will disenfranchise disabled voters, while other critics say the rules will unfairly target Democrats. But putting these measures into law this year was "vital," Landry said. "The election integrity package I championed closes loopholes, protects our most vulnerable voters, ensures that chain-of-custody best practices are followed, and represents one more step to making Louisiana No.
1 in election integrity." The Lafayette native is also far from done making changes at the Department of State. Landry in place before the 2028 presidential election, she said in a recent wide-ranging interview about her tenure.
Landry, a Republican, graduated from Lafayette High School and earned psychology and law degrees from LSU. Later, she opened a family law practice for people who couldn’t afford a full-service lawyer, a move inspired by her time clerking for then-15th Judicial District Judge Phyllis Keaty, who handled family law in Lafayette, Vermillion and Acadia parishes. In 2006, she — reluctantly — stepped into politics, hoping for a shot at the state House District 31 seat covering Vermillion and Lafayette parishes.
“There were a lot of people unhappy with the representation that we had, and they wanted someone else. So I said, ‘Well I’ll help ya’ll find someone. I don’t want to do it myself,’” Landry recalled.
But she couldn’t find anyone, and after enough encouragement, decided to run. Though she lost her 2007 race, she tried again when the seat opened up the following year due to a resignation. She won by more than 5,000 votes, and went on to hold the seat for nearly 12 years, earning a reputation as a conservative advocate for school choice and education reform.
In 2016, she was , drawing backlash from the state’s two teachers unions. That panel played a central role in a contentious over the state’s Common Core standards. “She was a great chairman,” said Rep.
Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, a friend of Landry's who now chairs the House Ways and Means committee. “We still reference her leadership style.” Landry also sponsored legislation for the secretary of state's office.
In doing so, she developed a relationship with former Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin. Facing term limits in the House, Landry in 2019 accepted an invitation to work as Ardoin’s first assistant secretary of state, his second-in-command. Ardoin said former House Speaker Taylor Barras encouraged him to consider Landry: "When I spoke to him, he talked about her loyalty, her grasp of issues, her ability to articulate positions.
" Other factors were at play, too. "I felt like it was important to have a female in the office given what we went through with my predecessor's issues, or the accusations of sexual harassment," Ardoin said, referencing former Secretary of State Tom Schedler’s resignation after a . "And I wanted a conservative Republican.
Because if I had to step down or I had something happen to me, I would want someone with conservative ideology to take over." Sherri Wharton Hadskey, who has worked in Louisiana elections for nearly four decades and was appointed state commissioner of elections in 2017, said Landry as Ardoin's No. 2 took the time to learn the intricate details of elections operations and administration.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden, and Ardoin had to deal with the fallout. As Trump supporters began to sow doubt about the security of Louisiana’s elections, Landry was “astute” and “meticulous” in managing the agency, Ardoin said. “I suppose there was a lot of external chaos, but as far as my job here.
.. it wasn’t that stressful for me,” Landry recalled.
“I was nose down to the grindstone.” A found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state, something Landry has often pointed to as she’s cast state elections as “safe, secure and accurate.” When Ardoin last spring decided not to seek another term, Landry was surprised.
After taking a few weeks to reflect and pray, she soon for secretary of state. She won the seat with two-thirds of the vote. In the recent regular legislative session — just months into her tenure — Landry secured passage of 11 election-related bills, dubbed the “ .
” Under that takes effect in 2025, the Department of State can put people who haven’t voted, corrected their address or taken other voting-related steps in ten years onto an inactive voter list. This second voter canvass, in addition to canvasses by parish-level voter registrars, is similar to one sought by Ardoin but that failed to get approval under Edwards. Under current law, voter registrars may only deem voters inactive if their addresses aren’t verified or incorrect.
Starting Aug. 1, who may assist people with absentee ballots and make it easier to throw out some of those ballots. (A measure that would have made it tougher to request absentee ballots was vetoed by Edwards in 2021.
) They also require people or organizations holding voter registration drives to register with Landry’s office. And starting Jan. 1, voter registration applications must include proof of U.
S. citizenship. Critics have blasted the changes.
Terry Landry, Jr., Louisiana policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said people have fought and died for the right to vote, and the state should ease voting access, not hinder it. He said people with disabilities will be harmed by the mail-in ballot rules.
And in requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, “We’re creating solutions where there are no problems,” he said. But Secretary Landry said the changes will make an already secure elections process even safer and that the changes will bring "protection for our most vulnerable voters." Landry also hopes to tackle another long-held priority of her office — replacing the state's pre-internet-era voting machines.
A state contract to do so in 2018 after a losing bidder filed a complaint alleging the procurement process had been mishandled. Other attempts to buy machines . Now, replacing the voting system will be complicated by a that requires a six-member "Voting System Proposal Evaluation Committee" to 'investigate and publicly test the voting systems proposed" by vendors the state seeks.
Landry said it will still be several months before her office issues a request for proposals from vendors the machines. In the meantime, Landry said she is focused on having a successful presidential election this November. Though its another Trump matchup, this time against Vice President Kamala Harris, Landry is not worried about any scrutiny the race could bring to Louisiana.
"I think I can handle it," she said..
