Do we like them?

Do we like Jeff Landry?

Our score: 2 out of 10. He signed a trans bathroom ban and a map removing a Black-majority seat, and we found no verified good deeds to set against that.

Landry is Louisiana's 57th governor, sworn in in January 2024 after years as the state's attorney general. He took over from Democrat John Bel Edwards, whose vetoes had stopped a lot of culture-war legislation, so the shift was sharp.

The harm check starts with trans rights. In June 2024 he signed a law that redefines male and female in state law and blocks trans people from bathrooms matching their gender identity in schools, jails, shelters and other facilities. Landry framed it as protecting women's safety, while trans advocates called it discrimination.

It wasn't a one-off. As attorney general he pushed conservative policies including a state ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, according to AP reporting. Trans Louisianans said before he even took office that they'd lost an ally in the governor's seat and were preparing to fight.

Then there's the Ten Commandments. Louisiana's classroom-display law was blocked by a federal judge and a three-judge appeals panel, but the full Fifth Circuit cleared the way in February 2026. Landry then told schools to start posting the posters and said the state would defend any that get sued. Faith alone isn't a fail here, but ordering it on a public school system is a line plenty of Louisianans, including the ACLU, are still fighting.

The latest stoush is the map. After the Supreme Court struck down the old congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais, Landry suspended the May 16 US House primaries mid-election. The Legislature then passed, and he signed within hours, a map dismantling one of the state's two majority-Black districts. His side points to the Supreme Court ruling, while Democrats called it an erosion of hard-won civil rights gains, and even Republican Clay Higgins said he was opposed.

On the Senate side, Landry backed Trump-endorsed Julia Letlow, who led the May 16 primary with about 45 per cent. Incumbent Bill Cassidy was knocked out and Letlow and John Fleming went to a runoff. That's hardball kingmaking, and it's why the good-person test is a close call rather than a clean pass.