Donna and John Bel Edwards grew up in Amite, met as middle schoolers there and told a crowd Wednesday that they are looking forward to returning to Tangipahoa Parish after eight years in the Governor’s Mansion.
“There’s no place like home,” Donna Edwards told the crowd of supporters at the Florida Parishes Agricultural Event Center in Amite in what was billed as the governor’s farewell address.
Her husband turns over power on Monday to Attorney General Jeff Landry.
Those in attendance Wednesday night included family members, volunteers from when Edwards was a long shot in the 2015 governor’s race, aides in the governor’s office, cabinet officials and Democratic and Republican state legislators.
As he has been doing over the past couple of months, Edwards highlighted the achievements of his tenure: he and state legislators put the state’s finances back into the black, paid down long-term debt, financed the construction and reconstruction of roads, bridges and ports and poured money into education to raise teacher pay and improve learning at K-12 schools and colleges and universities.
Edwards noted he expanded Medicaid to the working poor to make the state healthier, and he oversaw a push to transform the oil and gas economy into renewable energy to create jobs and stem global warming.
The governor gave shout-outs to three aides: Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, who served all eight years; Ben Nevers, who served as his chief of staff for his first year; and Mark Cooper, his chief of staff for his final seven years.
Edwards noted that he had to manage the state through massive hurricanes, devastating floods and the COVID-19 health crisis that killed thousands and unleashed a misinformation campaign by ultra-conservatives against the government’s moves.
“Speaking of the pandemic, I’m just going to tell y’all, if you become governor, I guess you sign up for whatever comes your way,” he said, ad-libbing from his prepared remarks. “That one was hard. That one was really hard.”
