At the time of his death , Roger F. Villere , Jr. , chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party , heralded Thibodaux as a pioneer of the GOP in southwestern Louisiana . Disenfranchised with the controlling Democratic Party due to widespread corruption throughout the state in the 1970s and 1980s , Thibodaux sought to enhance the position of Louisiana 's Republican Party to restore a viable two-party system in the state . He served as a delegate to the 1988 Republican National Convention and was elected to the Republican State Central Committee , where , as a member of The Louisiana Coalition against Racism and Nazism , he rallied against David Duke 's 1991 gubernatorial campaign . In 1990 , Thibodaux ran for the U.S. House for the 7th Congressional District . The seat had never been held by a Republican and was a known Democratic stronghold , famously held by Edwin Edwards from 1965 to 1972 , before he was elected to his first of four terms as governor of Louisiana . Edwards supported his protégé , John Breaux , to run as his successor . Breaux held the seat until 1986 before being elected to the U.S. Senate for the first of three terms in which he became one of the nation 's most influential legislators . Breaux then supported Jimmy Hayes of Lafayette , who won the seat as his successor in 1986 . Thibodaux lost his 1990 bid to the two-term incumbent Hayes . Thibodaux received almost 70,000 votes , nearly 40 percent of the vote
1988 Republican National Convention
1988 Republican National Convention
David Thibodaux