Jimmy Wilson - Leach V. Wilson

Leach V. Wilson

The general election promised from the start to be a closely contested event. Wilson was clearly the "business" candidate, and Leach was the choice of "moderates," including blacks and organized labor. Blacks then comprised 31 percent of Fourth District voters and were expected to be decisive in the outcome of the congressional race, the first competitive one since the initial election of Waggonner. Ironically, Leach's later congressional voting record was clearly on the "conservative" side, like that of his predecessor Waggonner, not on the "moderate" side as most observers had anticipated.

While Wilson was seen as "conservative," he tried to avoid racial polarization. He pointed out that he had sent his children to a desegregated public school in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Wilson made campaign fodder of Leach's support of numerous state tax increases, but that issue may have increased Leach's favorability ratings among public sector employees, who believe that they benefit from tax hikes.

At a Democratic unity rally in Shreveport in October 1978, Waggonner joined Governor Edwin Washington Edwards and Senator Russell Long in endorsing Leach over Wilson. Many believed that the endorsement by Waggonner did more to elect Leach than anything else that happened in the campaign. The defunct Shreveport Journal reported that Waggonner decided to endorse Leach because he had become irritated with Ford's decision to come to Shreveport to lend personal support to the Wilson campaign. The Journal said that Waggonner resented national Republican influence in the Democratic Fourth District even though the congressman had been personally and politically close to both former Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ford.

The outcome of the Leach-Wilson race remained uncertain for weeks, but the official state returns, as ultimately accepted by the Democratic Congress, declared Leach the winner by 266 votes: 65,583 (50.1 percent) to 65,317 (49.9 percent). Wilson secured majorities only in Caddo and Bossier parishes, where he drew 55.1 percent and 54.4 percent, respectively. Wilson polled 47.4 percent in Webster Parish, 45.1 percent in Claiborne Parish, and 44.1 percent in Sabine Parish. In three other parishes, Wilson trailed far behind, 38.9 percent in Red River Parish (Coushatta), 37.5 percent in De Soto Parish (Mansfield), and 32.7 percent in Leach's Vernon Parish.