Sept. 3, 2026Methodology v3.0 · State metrics: 12 source systems, data through 2023–2025 by metric
Political Grades
government — just the stats

GovernorsLouisiana

Louisiana Under Jeff Landry

Republican · Sworn in Jan. 8, 2024 · Now in 1st term

Louisiana under Gov. Landry is not yet scored — the attribution lag means the first scorable data hasn't been published.

The Executive Summary

Gov. Jeff Landry (R) has held Louisiana's governorship since Jan. 2024; Louisiana has 0 scored categories so far — an overall rating needs 3. These are movements on the governor's watch — shared with the legislature and the economy — association, not causation.

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Jeff Landry
Louisiana · Republican · since Jan. 2024 · 1st term
Overall
Not yet scored
needs 3+ scored categories
CategoryLatestScore vs. peers
HonestyNot numerically scored — see Integrity Record
Spending disciplineScoring rule in development
Education scale score266.824Too early
Air quality AQI4124Too early
Water quality % of systems with a violation24.425Insufficient data
Unemployment %4.325Insufficient data
Health coverage % of adults 18-64 uninsured7.824Too early
Tax burden % of personal income5.824Insufficient data
Energy cost cents/kWh11.724Too early
Cost of living index, US=10088.224Too early
Homicide age-adjusted deaths per 100,00015.224Too early
Teen births per 1,000 females 15-1921.324Too early
Wellbeing mean poor-mental-health days of 30624Too early
School food qualityScoring rule in development
School shootings024Context · 8/10yr
Obesity % of adults39.224Too early
Early literacy % of 4th-graders below basic39.624Too early
Gun deaths age-adjusted deaths per 100,00022.924Too early
Food-aid access index (higher = easier access)0.823Too early
Jobless-benefit access % of unemployed receiving UI13.224Too early
Data transparency — CDC BRFSS survey-years delivered: 1 of 1 in this governor’s window (the only state-run collection scored; BRFSS data through 2024)Full reporting

Each score blends where the state stands today with its trend over this governor’s window, vs. the other states with comparable data — 49 in most categories, fewer wherever a state-year is missing. Scores are in standard deviations (σ) — how far above or below the other states this one sits, where 0 is the middle of the pack and ±1 is a wide gap. *thin data (under 3 points). Tap ? on any row for what it measures, its chart, and the source. All provisional while the term runs. Methodology v3.0

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Louisiana’s debt on their watch

context — not this governor’s grade

When Gov. Landry took office in 2024, Louisiana’s state government owed $16.1 billion (fiscal 2023; Census). The latest published figure is $16.1 billion (fiscal 2024 — the Census survey runs about two years behind). A state’s debt is set by budgets a governor proposes and signs, a legislature that writes and amends them, bond votes, and the economy — it is shared, which is why it is context here and not part of the grade. Figures cover the state government only, not cities, counties or school districts — and they count bonded debt, not unfunded pension obligations, which are a separate and often large part of what a state owes. Source: Census Bureau.

$5B$10B$15B$20B202020222024COVID-19 public health emergency (WHO PHEIC: Jan 30, 2020 – May 5, 2023)COVID-19 ’20–’23COVID-19 recession (NBER: Feb 2020 – Apr 2020)recession ’20$16.1 billion
State government debt outstanding, fiscal 20202024, in nominal dollars — state government only, excluding cities, counties and school districts; no inflation adjustment. Y-axis starts at zero. Source: Census Bureau. Shaded spans and dashed marks (dated on the rail below the chart): exogenous events — recessions as dated by the NBER, the COVID-19 emergency as dated by the WHO, and NOAA-recorded $100B+ hurricanes — the outlier years are theirs, not any one officeholder's.
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And the promises beyond the bonds

Bonded debt is not the whole of what a state owes. Public pension plans in Louisiana have promised benefits valued at $103.6 billion against $62.3 billion actually held — an unfunded gap of $41.4 billion, 60% funded (2022, the latest year published). These promises accumulated over decades, under many governors and legislatures — the most inherited numbers on this page — and the figures cover defined-benefit pension plans sponsored by state and local governments for their employees, so local-government plans are included alongside the state’s own. Source: Federal Reserve.

$50B$100B$150B200220122022Hurricane Katrina (Aug 25–30, 2005; $201.3B CPI-adjusted, NOAA)Katrina ’05The Great Recession (NBER: Dec 2007 – Jun 2009)Great Recession ’07–’09COVID-19 public health emergency (WHO PHEIC: Jan 30, 2020 – May 5, 2023)COVID-19 ’20–’21COVID-19 recession (NBER: Feb 2020 – Apr 2020)recession ’20promised $103.6 billionheld $62.3 billion
Pension promises (top line) against plan holdings (bottom line), 20022022, in nominal dollars; the space between them is the unfunded gap. Y-axis starts at zero. Source: Federal Reserve, Enhanced Financial Accounts. Shaded spans and dashed marks (dated on the rail below the chart): exogenous events — recessions as dated by the NBER, the COVID-19 emergency as dated by the WHO, and NOAA-recorded $100B+ hurricanes — the outlier years are theirs, not any one officeholder's.
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Integrity Record

facts from official records — not a score

Honesty is not numerically scored on this site. For a governor, the record that can fairly bear on it is the Adjudicated Record: findings by bodies that cannot reach a party-line verdict — a court of record, or a state body that is evenly bipartisan by rule. A final such finding caps the grade (it never raises it); nothing else here touches the number. The two ledgers that a member of Congress carries — votes against bills they endorsed, and spoken commitments tested against roll calls — do not apply to a governor, who casts no roll-call votes and leaves no uniform speech record; they are named here so their absence is a stated boundary, not a silent gap.

Adjudicated record

the only tier that can cap a grade

Record search for Landry: 0 of 2 admitted sources connected, 0 qualifying events. The event feeds are not yet wired, so this searches no events today — a stated gap, not a finding of innocence. What is already fixed is the rule, published before any event: a cap applies only on a final finding from an admitted body (Tier 1 → F, Tier 2 → C-, Tier 3 → B).

  • AdmittedFederal court judgments (deception-map offenses) (admitted by rule — event feed not yet wired)
  • AdmittedLA courts of record (criminal judgments on the deception map) (admitted by rule — event feed not yet wired)
  • not admittedLA state ethics body: not shown to be evenly bipartisan by rule (or unverified); a body without a mandated partisan balance cannot cap a grade
  • excluded by ruleLA legislative impeachment / removal: a legislative majority is not an evenly-bipartisan adjudicator

What this measures: findings by courts and evenly-bipartisan bodies against Landry. What it does not: truthfulness of speech, campaign promises, or anything a partisan body decided — those are excluded on purpose. Dispute anything: challenge@politicalgrades.com. Read the rulebook.

Unemployment Rate, 20102025

Louisiana against all 49 other states · 2025 is an 11-month average — October 2025 was never collected (federal shutdown)
COVID-19 public health emergency (WHO PHEIC: Jan 30, 2020 – May 5, 2023)COVID-19 ’20–’23COVID-19 recession (NBER: Feb 2020 – Apr 2020)recession ’2002468101214%2010201520202025took officeLouisiana50-state medianCOVID-19 public health emergency (WHO PHEIC: Jan 30, 2020 – May 5, 2023)COVID-19 ’20–’23COVID-19 recession (NBER: Feb 2020 – Apr 2020)recession ’200815%20152025
Louisiana 50-state median Other 49 states

Annual-average unemployment rate — the headline economic series, charted in full. The shaded band is its scored window: it opens with the first full calendar year after the attribution lag, so a governor sworn in mid-year starts a year later than one sworn in that January. It tracks through the newest published data. The dashed line is the 50-state median, shown for context; scoring uses the median of the other 49 states. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics.

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The Record

Gov. Landry was elected in 2023 and sworn in on Jan. 8, 2024. The scored record above covers Louisiana's outcomes during this continuous service, lagged per category (each category's lag was fixed before scoring).

Show the Work

every category score, and how the overall is built from them
Methodologyv3.0, preregistered — directions and lags fixed before scoring; full dataset at /governors.json

Each score blends two z-scores against the other states: where the state stands today (60%) and which way it moved over the category’s window (40%), capped at ±2.5σ. The trend is a fitted slope — log-linear, except where zero is a legal value (water quality), fitted linearly and reported in percentage points — measured against the median trend of the other states with enough data in the same window, 49 in most categories and fewer wherever a state-year is missing. Because standing carries the larger share, a positive score does not mean the trend improved: on 0 of the 0 scored categories on this page the two point opposite ways, which is why both columns are printed.

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Cite this

Louisiana under Gov. Landry is not yet scored — the attribution lag means the first scorable data hasn't been published. — Political Grades, methodology v3.0, data through 2023–2025 by category. Provisional; trend-vs-peers scoring; relative movement, not causation.

Also Tracked in Louisiana

the state’s other officials on this site