In 1962, 1964, and 1968, David C. Treen, a Metairie, lawyer who became the first Louisiana Republican governor in 1980, challenged Boggs for reelection.

Treen attributed Boggs's victory to the supporters of former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace Jr., who ran for president on the American Independent Party ticket.

We couldn ’ t really believe they would support Boggs, but several Democratic organizations did come out for Wallace and Boggs, and he received just enough Wallace votes to give him the election .” Republican officials seemed convinced that fraudulent votes in some Orleans Parish precincts benefited Boggs and that Treen may have actually won the election.

Two men whom Edwards defeated in Louisiana elections — David C. Treen and J. Bennett Johnston Jr .— and a third who was his protégé, John Breaux, confirmed in July 2007 that they intended to approach then U. S. President George W. Bush about procuring a pardon or commutation for Edwards, who celebrated his 80th birthday in prison in August 2007.

Treen focused on Edward's reputation for corruption and dishonesty, while Edwards sought to portray Treen as incompetent and unresponsive to the public.

In 1960, Treen opposed the election of both Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy as president and ran as an elector for the Louisiana States ' Rights Party, which supported Virginia Democratic U. S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr.

Treen joined the Republican Party ( GOP ), then still small in Louisiana, in 1962 to run for the U. S. House of Representatives against Second District Democrat Hale Boggs ( 1914 – 1972 ), of New Orleans though Treen's father had urged him instead to challenge Boggs for renomination in the Democratic primary.

Under the circumstances, Treen was able to raise only $ 11, 000 for his 1962 and polled 27, 791 votes ( 32. 8 percent ) to Boggs ' 57, 395 ( 67. 2 percent ).

In 1964, Treen again challenged Boggs and improved on his earlier showing, helped by the popularity in Louisiana of the presidential candidacy of U. S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater and by Boggs ' vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even as most Southern Democrats voted against it.

In 1966, Treen did not run for Congress ; the GOP fielded the attorney Leonard L. Limes of New Orleans, who was badly defeated by Boggs.

California Governor Ronald Reagan came into the district to campaign for Treen.

Treen attributed Boggs ' victory to the supporters of former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, who ran for president on the American Independent Party ticket.

Ross challenged Treen again for governor in 1983 and ran far behind in races for the United States Senate in 1984 and 1986.

The Shreveport Times and its sister publication, the former Monroe Morning World ( now Monroe News Star ), analyzed the gubernatorial returns and concluded that Edwards received 202, 055 black votes to only 10, 709 for Treen.

After a decade of service on the Republican State Central Committee, Treen was named as the Louisiana Republican national committeeman for a two-year stint that began in 1972.

In the fall of 1972, based in part on the strength of his losing gubernatorial race, Treen ran for the open Third District House seat vacated by conservative Democrat Patrick T. Caffery of New Iberia, the seat of Iberia Parish in south Louisiana.

Treen ran that year in the nonpartisan blanket primary for governor, only the second such election held in Louisiana.

Only ten parishes that had voted for Treen in 1972 stuck with him in 1979.

A few hallmarks of the Treen administration were the creation of the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts, a statewide high school on the campus of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for the gifted, the establishment of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the appointment of more minorities to state positions.

Treen obtained legislative passage of his " Professional Improvement Program " ( or PIPs ) for public school teachers, but the program was dropped in the next Edwards administration.

Treen, as a young Democrat in 1956, had supported then Republican congressional nominee George R. Blue in Blue's failed race against Boggs that year.

His obituary describes him as having been " instrumental in bringing about the first Republican gubernatorial primary in the state of Louisiana " in 1971, a nomination won by David C. Treen.

On the heels of a fleeting surplus of state funds from oil revenues following America's oil crises of the late seventies, one-term Republican Governor David Conner Treen approved the founding of the school.

David Conner " Dave " Treen, Sr. ( July 16, 1928 – October 29, 2009 ), was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U. S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction.

Treen grew up as a Democrat, but became a Republican in 1962 when there were only about ten thousand registered Republicans in the state.

Treen polled 480, 424 ballots ( 42. 8 %) to Edwards's 641, 146 ( 57. 2 %) Treen carried twenty-seven parishes, mostly in the northern part of the state, with margins exceeding 60 percent in ten of those parishes.

His friend, James H. Boyce, a Baton Rouge industrialist, served as state party chairman while Treen was national committeeman.

In March 1980, aged 51, Treen became the 51st governor of his state.

When Treen assumed office, only 10 of the 105 members of the Louisians House of Representatives were Republican, and all 39 state senators were Democrats.

Treen had difficulty with the lieutenant governor, Democrat Robert " Bobby " Freeman, a former state representative from Plaquemine in Iberville Parish.

Freeman, considered a liberal by Louisiana standards, vowed to exercise gubernatorial powers, as permitted under the state constitution, whenever Treen left the state, either on business or pleasure.

Guin blamed the legislature, still largely under the domination of Edwards even during the Treen years, for contributing to Treen's defeat. In addition to Treen's own defeat, several Democratic allies of the Republican governor were unseated in the state Senate, including Dan Richey of Ferriday in Concordia Parish and Edward G. " Ned " Randolph, Jr., of Alexandria in Rapides Parish.

In 1991, despite their differences, Treen endorsed Edwards ' bid for a fourth term because the Republican choice in the state's jungle primary fell on former Ku Klux Klansman and state Representative David Duke, by then a perennial candidate who was troublesome to the GOP and the business community.

Ironically, Duke won his single victory for public office, a seat in the state House of Representatives, by narrowly defeating Treen's brother, John S. Treen, a home builder in Jefferson Parish.

In the special election with David Duke, also trying to score a comeback, and Republican state Representative David Vitter, Treen finished first with 36, 719 votes ( 25 %) to Vitter's 31, 741 ( 22 %) and Duke's 28, 055 ( 19 %).

Many of Vitter's colleagues in the state legislature, including Republicans, supported Treen and charged that Vitter was difficult to work with as a legislator.

Treen endorsed the reelection of Democratic U. S. Senator Mary Landrieu in her 2008 race against Republican state Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, who resided in Mandeville, where Treen lived at the time.

Condolences and kinds words poured in from around the state, typified by Southeastern Louisiana University president John L. Crain's tribute that Treen " was a true Louisiana icon, a Republican governor in Louisiana before it was cool ".

In 1989, Lee deplored the choice of Republicans David Duke and John S. Treen for the vacancy in state House District 81 created by the resignation of Charles Cusimano, who became a state court judge.

Treen built on Buckley ’ s efforts in the first contest, and Goldwater's momentum in Louisiana helped in the second race.

Lyons said that his decision to leave the race was intended to allow conservatives to unite behind Treen.

Another source said that Treen, who was named Republican national committeeman after his gubernatorial race, received the backing of 55 % of white voters but only 2 % among African Americans.

In 1976, Treen polled 73. 3 percent in a race against a nominal Democratic opponent while the Democrat Jimmy Carter carried Louisiana over Gerald R. Ford.

In that race, Treen won only a handful of parishes, including rural La Salle Parish in north Louisiana, which supported him in all three of his gubernatorial bids.

Treen withdrew from the pre-primary race and worked for Jindal's election.

Treen had lost a race for this same seat in a 1999 special election to current U. S. Senator David Vitter.