BATON ROUGE — When Buddy Roemer was inaugurated as governor in March 1988, he promised a revolution.

And he certainly made history during his term, being the first governor in U.S. history to switch political parties while in office, becoming a Republican after a successful bid as a Democrat.

He ran for reelection in 1991, facing opposition from former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former KKK leader David Duke. Edwards and Roemer engaged in a particularly heated discussion during a WBRZ debate.

But Roemer didn't make the runoff, finishing third to Edwards and Duke.

He then bowed out of politics until 2012 when he ran for president, a run which itself ended due to a lack of ballot access.

Roemer died in 2021 at the age of 77, remembered for reform and his "revolution" that the New York Times

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