Edwards, Edwin W. (Edwin Washington), 1927-2021

Edwin Washington Edwards (August 7, 1927 – July 12, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 7th congressional district from 1965 to 1972 and as the 50th Governor of Louisiana for four terms (1972–1980, 1984–1988 and 1992–1996), twice as many elected terms as any other Louisiana chief executive. He served a total of 16 years in office, the sixth-longest serving gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at 5,784 days.

Born in rural Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, he grew up bilingual, speaking English and Cajun French. After serving briefly in the U.S. Navy Air Corps near the end of World War II, Edwards graduated from Louisiana State University Law Center and began practicing law in Crowley, the seat of Acadia Parish. Edwards entered politics through election to the Crowley City Council in 1954, remaining there until his election to the Louisiana State Senate in 1964. After serving as a state senator for less than two years, Edwards was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1965.

In the election of 1971–1972, Edwards won the governorship after finishing first in a field of seventeen candidates in the Democratic primary. His greatest support came from southern Louisiana, particularly among its large numbers of Cajun, Creole, and African-American voters. He easily bested his Republican challenger David Treen in the 1972 general election. Riding high from his success, Edwards devoted his first term to bringing about badly needed political reform. During his first term, Edwards was the driving force behind an effort to replace the state’s anachronistic and unwieldy 1921 constitution. A constitutional convention that met in 1973 redrew and streamlined the document before sending it to Louisiana voters. It was overwhelmingly approved the following year. The 1974 constitution represented a significant departure from the special interest protection and cronyism built into the previous document. It contained a strong bill of rights safeguarding the liberties of African Americans, who had suffered much in the era of Jim Crow. Edwards easily won reelection in 1975.

Limited to two consecutive terms, Edwards temporarily left politics in 1980 but made it clear he would run again for governor in 1983. Easily elected, Edwards's third term coincided with the collapse of the international oil market that sent oil prices plummeting, forcing the Governor to raise taxes. Compounding Edwards’s problems were continued allegations of political corruption that eventually resulted in federal prosecution. Edwards came up short in his bid for a fourth term in 1987.

When the 1991 gubernatorial election rolled around, Edwards's name was again on the ballot. Pitted against Republican nominee David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Edwards won his fourth and final term as Governor in a landslide. Edwards's final term proved the most controversial, as charges of corruption finally began to stick to the so-called “Teflon governor”, Edwards becoming ensnared in a federal probe into his administration. He was ultimately found guilty on seventeen of twenty-six counts, including racketeering, extortion, money laundering, mail fraud, and wire fraud, serving eight years of his ten year sentence. He remained ineligible to seek the governorship until 2027.

In 2014, Edwards ran for a Congressional seat in Louisiana’s Sixth District, losing to Republican Garret Graves in a 62-38 percent margin in a runoff, only the second defeat in Edwards’s political career. Plagued by ill health in his final years, Edwards died in Gonzales, Louisiana on July 12, 2021. He was married three times, first to Elaine Schwartzenburg, second to Candy Picou, and third to Trina Grimes Scott.