Octogenarian former governor and ex-con Edwin Edwards is thinking about running for Congress

“I’m the only hope the Democrats have here,” says the one-time governor of Louisiana

Published February 21, 2014 3:38PM (EST)

Former Governor Edwin Edwards is something of a living legend when it comes to Louisiana politics. A Democrat, Edwards has been part of the Bayou State's political scene since the 1950s and has served a total of four terms as the state's chief executive. Oh, and did we mention he's also a former federal inmate who found himself incarcerated after being judged guilty for a whole bunch of charges pertaining to corruption? That too.

Despite his advanced age and his checkered past, however, an ABC News report indicates that Edwards is seriously considering a run for Congress (due to his aforementioned legal problems, he can't run for state office for roughly another decade). "I’m just figuring out all the legalities and how to set up a super PAC," Edwards recently told a journalist from Bloomberg News, "and then I’m going.”

While Edwards' wife, with whom he stars in an A&E reality show, insists that the former Louisiana political titan hasn't definitively made up his mind yet about making another political run, the ex-con ex-governor seems to think his chances are quite good. “I’m the only hope the Democrats have here,” Edwards told Bloomberg, referring to his state's sixth Congressional district.

In any event, an Edwards run would be a boon for political reporters — and not just because of all the headline puns that would be on offer for stories about an elderly ex-con. Edwards is famously quotable, having once bragged that he was so popular in Louisiana that he could only lose if he were "caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy." Another time, he ridiculed an opponent as being so slow-witted that "it would take him an hour and a half to watch ’60 Minutes.’"

So keep your eyes out for an Edwards 2014 run. Stranger things have happened. (Not many, but still.)


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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