A $2 Million Bet on Dirt: Why Louisiana Is Spending Money Before the Companies Arrive

Louisiana is putting another piece of its economic-development strategy into the ground before a company ever announces a project.

St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation announced a $2 million FastSites investment on September 19 to expand development-ready acreage at Gulf South Commerce Park, a 919-acre business park on the Northshore.

The money is intended to move additional property closer to “shovel-ready” status for manufacturers, distribution operations and logistics companies.

That may not generate the attention of a billion-dollar factory announcement, but it addresses one of the less visible realities of economic development: companies often eliminate potential locations long before incentives or ribbon cuttings enter the conversation because the land simply is not ready.

Why Site Readiness Matters

Large industrial prospects typically want answers quickly.

Is the property under control? Can utilities reach it? What road improvements are required? Are environmental issues known? How long will permitting and construction take?

A site that requires years of preliminary work can lose to another state even if Louisiana has the workforce, tax structure and location the company wants.

Louisiana Economic Development created FastSites to attack that problem by helping communities prepare industrial property before a specific prospect arrives.

The St. Tammany investment expands that strategy at Gulf South Commerce Park, which is positioned near major interstate routes and the New Orleans region’s port and logistics network.

From Recruiting Companies To Preparing For Them

Louisiana’s recent run of large economic-development announcements has changed the scale of the competition.

The state is pursuing advanced manufacturing, technology, logistics, energy and other projects that can require hundreds of acres and enormous amounts of infrastructure.

That makes site preparation part of the recruitment process rather than something that happens after a deal is signed.

There is no guarantee the $2 million investment will produce a particular factory or distribution center.

That is the nature of site development.

Louisiana is spending money now so that when the next major prospect begins comparing states, St. Tammany Parish can offer something more valuable than a promise to get ready.

It can offer land that already is.

Source Notes

St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation, Sept. 19, 2026: https://sttammanyedc.org/2-million-dollar-investment-expands-gulf-south-commerce-park

St. Tammany EDC sites and buildings information: https://sttammanyedc.org/sites-and-buildings

Louisiana Payrolls Hit 2.022 Million as August Job Count Reaches a New High

Louisiana entered the fall with a record number of payroll jobs and one of the strongest year-over-year employment growth rates in the country, according to newly released federal labor data.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Louisiana had 2.022 million nonfarm payroll jobs in August, up 32,100 from August 2025. That represents 1.6 percent year-over-year growth.

Louisiana, New Mexico and South Carolina tied for the largest percentage increase in payroll employment among states over the year, according to BLS.

The state's unemployment rate also declined to 4.2 percent in August.

Construction Is Doing a Lot of the Heavy Lifting

The latest state-level breakdown shows why the numbers matter to Louisiana's current economic-development story.

Construction employment has been one of the major sources of growth as the state moves through a period of unusually large industrial investment. Data centers, manufacturing plants, energy projects and infrastructure developments require enormous construction workforces long before permanent operations begin.

Recent Louisiana workforce reporting shows construction added 17,200 jobs over the year. Education and health services and professional and business services also posted gains.

That mix is important because Louisiana's current investment cycle will ultimately be judged on more than announced capital spending.

Billions of dollars in projects sound impressive. The lasting economic test is whether those investments produce sustained employment, higher incomes, local contracting opportunities and enough permanent jobs after construction crews leave.

A Record With Some Important Caveats

The August figures are preliminary and can be revised. A record payroll count also does not, by itself, show whether wages are keeping pace with living costs, whether jobs are distributed evenly across the state or whether every Louisiana community is benefiting.

Federal statisticians also distinguish between numerical changes and changes large enough to be considered statistically significant. Nationally, payroll employment was essentially unchanged in most states during August even though many posted small numerical movements.

The year-over-year Louisiana result is more notable. BLS identified Louisiana's 1.6 percent annual payroll growth as one of the largest percentage gains in the country.

For a state that has spent years trying to reverse population losses and attract large employers, that is a number worth watching.

The next question is whether Louisiana can maintain the momentum as the massive projects now under development move from construction announcements into long-term operations.

Source Notes

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sept. 18, 2026: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/laus_09182026.htm

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State Employment and Unemployment Summary: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

$40 Million Carencro Expansion Is Set to Begin — and It Shows Why Existing Acadiana Manufacturers Matter

Acadiana’s next major manufacturing story does not involve a company moving in from another state.

It involves a company that has already been operating in Carencro for nearly 30 years.

NPK Access Solutions is preparing to begin construction this month on a $40 million expansion of its Lafayette Parish manufacturing operation, increasing production capacity by roughly 50 percent and adding a new line of high-performance composite matting products.

The company manufactures recyclable composite mats used to create temporary access and work surfaces for industries including energy, utilities, pipelines and major infrastructure construction.

Louisiana Economic Development says the expansion is expected to create 38 direct jobs while retaining 124 existing positions. Another 71 indirect jobs are projected, bringing the estimated regional impact to 109 potential new job opportunities.

Expanded operations are expected to come online by mid-2027.

The Economic-Development Story That Gets Less Attention

Big recruitment announcements understandably generate headlines.

But some of the most durable economic growth comes from companies already operating in a community deciding to invest again.

NPK has spent decades building its workforce and manufacturing base in Carencro. When the company needed additional capacity, Lafayette Parish was competing not only to gain jobs but to keep future investment from going somewhere else.

That is why business-retention work matters.

Existing manufacturers already know the workforce, transportation network, suppliers and business environment. Their decision to put additional capital into an established Louisiana operation can be a strong signal about whether a region remains competitive.

There is also a broader Acadiana angle.

The region is simultaneously seeing investment tied to aerospace, aviation, data centers, electrical manufacturing and traditional energy-support industries. NPK’s products serve many of the sectors responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure behind that growth.

Acadiana’s economic future will not be built around one company or one industry.

It will depend on whether long-established manufacturers can grow alongside the headline-making projects arriving in the region.

NPK’s $40 million expansion is a good example of what that looks like on the ground.

Source Notes

Louisiana Economic Development announcement, July 29, 2026: https://www.opportunitylouisiana.gov/news/npk-access-solutions-builds-on-nearly-30-years-in-carencro-with-40-million-investment

BIC Magazine expansion report, Aug. 3, 2026: https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/operations/npk-access-solutions-expands-louisiana-facility/

Amazon Adds Another $6 Billion to Louisiana Bet — Bringing Planned Investment to $18 Billion

Amazon is dramatically increasing its investment in Northwest Louisiana, adding another $6 billion to a data center development announced only months ago.

That brings Amazon's planned investment across three Louisiana data center campuses to $18 billion.

And the speed of the expansion may be as significant as the dollar figure.

Amazon initially announced a $12 billion investment in February to construct data center campuses in Caddo and Bossier parishes. Less than six months later, the company announced another $6 billion and a third campus in Shreveport.

The newest expansion is expected to create 210 direct jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates another 499 indirect jobs could result, producing 709 potential new job opportunities.

Across all three campuses, Amazon is expected to support as many as 750 direct positions. STACK Infrastructure, Amazon's development partner, anticipates as many as 2,250 construction jobs.

Who Pays for the Infrastructure?

The enormous investment also raises an increasingly important Louisiana question: who pays for the infrastructure required by massive data centers?

Amazon says it will.

The company plans to invest as much as $400 million in public water infrastructure supporting its three campuses and says it will fund the water and wastewater improvements required by the projects.

Amazon is also working with SWEPCO on electrical infrastructure and says the company will fully fund the new energy infrastructure and grid upgrades required to serve the data centers rather than shifting those costs onto existing customers.

That's an important commitment as Louisiana aggressively pursues artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure.

Economic development should create opportunities for existing communities, not simply leave those communities with the bill.

Louisiana Is Becoming a Data Center State

Amazon isn't operating in isolation.

Louisiana now has enormous data center developments underway or planned in several regions of the state.

The opportunity extends beyond permanent jobs. Construction contractors, electricians, HVAC technicians, engineers, suppliers and skilled trades could all benefit from the billions being spent on these facilities.

Amazon's latest decision sends a particularly interesting signal.

The company committed $12 billion to Louisiana in February and, before the end of summer, decided it wanted to invest another $6 billion.

Louisiana's challenge now is ensuring that unprecedented investment translates into Louisiana jobs, Louisiana contractors and lasting economic opportunities for the communities hosting it.

$1.6 Billion Energy Investment Brings Headquarters Growth to Lafayette and More Than 1,000 Construction Jobs

Another billion-dollar investment is headed to Louisiana, and Acadiana will have a piece of it.

Black Bayou Energy Hub announced a $1.6 billion investment to develop natural gas infrastructure in Cameron Parish while expanding the company's corporate headquarters in Lafayette.

The project is expected to create 23 direct jobs across the two locations and retain five existing positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates another 35 indirect jobs could result from the investment.

But the larger employment impact could come during construction.

According to LED, the project is expected to support more than 1,000 construction jobs at peak.

Black Bayou is developing natural gas infrastructure around the Black Bayou salt dome in Southwest Louisiana. The project is intended to provide natural gas storage, transportation, blending and balancing services for LNG exporters, utilities, power generators and pipeline operators along the Gulf Coast.

Construction is expected to begin during the fourth quarter of 2026, with commercial operations targeted for late 2028.

Acadiana's role goes beyond supplying workers and contractors.

Black Bayou is headquartered in Lafayette and plans to expand its corporate operation there as the Cameron Parish development moves forward.

The Lafayette expansion is expected to create six direct positions with an average annual salary of $195,000 while retaining five existing jobs.

The announcement also illustrates how Louisiana's LNG expansion is creating opportunities beyond the massive export terminals themselves.

Louisiana Economic Development says more than $48 billion in LNG projects have been announced in the state since 2024.

Those facilities require pipelines, storage, transportation infrastructure, engineering, construction, maintenance and an enormous network of supporting companies.

That creates another economic-development question worth watching in Acadiana.

How much of that work can Louisiana companies capture?

The Gulf Coast already has an experienced industrial workforce, engineering firms, fabricators, construction contractors and oil-and-gas service companies.

If the current wave of energy investment continues, the economic impact won't be measured only by the number of permanent employees working at an individual facility.

It will also be measured by how much engineering, fabrication, construction and service work remains in Louisiana.

For Acadiana businesses accustomed to serving the Gulf Coast energy industry, Black Bayou's $1.6 billion investment represents another opportunity to compete for exactly that kind of work.

SpaceX Is Reviving a Lafayette Highway Idea That Has Been Talked About for Decades

For years, the proposed Lafayette Loop has been one of those Acadiana infrastructure ideas that never quite disappeared — but never became reality either.

SpaceX may be changing that conversation.

The Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission is preparing to reopen discussion over development of a western portion of an expressway around Lafayette, with the enormous Starbase Louisiana project planned for neighboring Vermilion Parish adding new urgency to the issue.

A commission meeting is scheduled for September 29.

The idea is worth watching because this isn't simply about making it easier to drive around Lafayette.

Acadiana may soon have to determine whether its existing transportation infrastructure is capable of supporting the type of economic growth now being discussed for the region.

SpaceX Changes the Equation

SpaceX's planned development near Pecan Island could eventually bring thousands of workers, contractors, suppliers and truck movements into an area that was never designed around a project of that scale.

Much of that activity will inevitably connect back to Lafayette and the surrounding communities.

That creates a basic infrastructure question:

How will everyone get there?

Local officials have begun discussing whether the western portion of the long-proposed Lafayette expressway could provide another transportation route connecting the Lafayette area with Vermilion Parish.

The proposal isn't new.

What is new is the potential demand.

A road project that may have been difficult to justify based solely on existing traffic patterns can look considerably different when a $100 billion aerospace development is planned nearby.

Iberia and Vermilion Now Have a Voice

The Louisiana Legislature also made an important change this year.

Legislation expanded the Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission from 11 to 13 members, adding appointments from both the Vermilion Parish Police Jury president and Iberia Parish president.

The commission's jurisdiction was also expanded.

That matters because the economic effects of Starbase Louisiana won't stop at a parish line.

Workers could commute from Lafayette, Iberia and surrounding parishes.

Contractors may stage equipment elsewhere in Acadiana.

Suppliers could operate from industrial facilities throughout the region.

And major components may need to move through highways, ports and other transportation infrastructure that stretches far beyond the SpaceX property.

Infrastructure Has to Come Before the Traffic

Louisiana has spent enormous energy attracting major economic development projects.

Now comes another challenge.

Infrastructure has to keep up.

Roads, bridges, electrical generation, transmission systems, water, sewer and industrial sites aren't particularly glamorous pieces of economic development.

But they frequently determine whether growth actually works.

Acadiana residents already know what happens when development moves faster than road capacity.

SpaceX raises the stakes considerably.

The September 29 meeting doesn't mean the Lafayette Loop is suddenly being built. Major transportation projects require planning, environmental work, financing and years of development.

But after decades of discussion, the project now has something it hasn't always had:

A potentially transformative economic development project creating an entirely new reason to reconsider it.

SpaceX may be building rockets in Vermilion Parish.

But the infrastructure needed to support them could reshape a much larger portion of Acadiana.

Louisiana Wants the Nation's Space Force Academy — And the Timing Could Hardly Be Better

Louisiana's ambitions in the space industry may be getting considerably bigger.

The state is reportedly preparing a bid to become home to a new national academy for the United States Space Force, potentially adding another major piece to Louisiana's rapidly expanding presence in America's space industry.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is working with Gov. Jeff Landry's administration and regional economic development organization GNO Inc. on the effort.

The opportunity follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump calling for creation of a Space Force academy similar to the existing military academies serving the Army, Navy and Air Force.

NASA has since invited interested states to begin pursuing the project.

For Louisiana, the timing is significant.

Just weeks ago, SpaceX announced plans for its massive Starbase Louisiana development in Vermilion Parish — a project expected to bring aerospace activity directly into Acadiana.

Louisiana also sits alongside NASA's Stennis Space Center, one of the nation's most important rocket propulsion testing facilities.

Now the state wants to add the educational component.

More Than Another Government Facility

Landing a Space Force academy would represent something different from simply winning another economic development project.

A national military academy can create an ecosystem around itself.

It attracts students, faculty, researchers, military personnel, contractors and federal investment. It also creates relationships between universities, private industry and the federal government.

For a state simultaneously trying to develop an aerospace economy, those relationships could be significant.

Louisiana's case also looks considerably different today than it might have just a few years ago.

SpaceX's decision to build Starbase Louisiana puts one of the world's most prominent aerospace companies in Vermilion Parish.

Universities including UL Lafayette already have engineering, computing and space-related research capabilities.

Louisiana also has generations of experience supporting complex industrial projects through its energy, petrochemical, offshore and manufacturing industries.

The challenge will be turning those individual assets into an identifiable aerospace cluster.

Louisiana's Space Opportunity Is Growing

The Space Force academy effort also illustrates something becoming increasingly apparent following the SpaceX announcement.

Starbase Louisiana may not be an isolated project.

If Louisiana can attract suppliers, researchers, educational institutions and additional aerospace operations around it, the economic impact could extend well beyond the boundaries of the Vermilion Parish facility.

That's particularly important for Acadiana.

Aerospace won't replace the energy industry that built much of South Louisiana's industrial economy.

But the engineering, fabrication, construction, logistics and technical skills developed here over decades could potentially serve both industries.

Louisiana now has another opportunity to make that transition.

There will undoubtedly be competition from other states for the Space Force academy, and Louisiana's bid is only at the beginning of that process.

But Louisiana is no longer simply talking about becoming part of America's commercial space economy.

With SpaceX headed to Vermilion Parish and state leaders now pursuing a national Space Force academy, Louisiana is attempting to build something much larger around it.

That's a development worth watching.

SpaceX Could Transform Acadiana — and UL Lafayette Wants to Make Sure Louisiana Workers Are Ready

The arrival of SpaceX in Vermilion Parish isn't simply about rockets launching from the Louisiana coast.

If the project develops as announced, it could begin reshaping Acadiana's economy — and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is positioning itself to make sure Louisiana workers and businesses have a place in it.

Following the announcement of SpaceX's massive Starbase Louisiana development near Pecan Island, UL Lafayette President Dr. Ramesh Kolluru said the university is prepared to expand its role in aerospace research, education and workforce development.

That could prove increasingly important.

SpaceX has announced plans for a $100 billion launch facility in Vermilion Parish, with construction expected to begin in 2027 and the first launch targeted as early as 2029.

The company says the project will initially create at least 3,000 jobs, with the workforce potentially growing significantly as the site develops.

Those numbers naturally grab attention.

But the bigger opportunity for Acadiana may extend well beyond the gates of the SpaceX property.

Building an Aerospace Workforce in Acadiana

UL Lafayette says it plans to align academic programs, research and workforce development with the needs of the growing commercial space industry.

That could mean internships and co-ops, industry-directed research, senior design projects, graduate education and continuing education.

And the workforce required by a project of this scale won't consist exclusively of rocket scientists.

Engineers, computer scientists, software developers, technicians, project managers, supply-chain professionals and other skilled workers will all be needed as Louisiana's aerospace industry develops.

UL Lafayette already has significant experience in many of those areas.

The university's connection to space exploration stretches back decades, and UL has produced graduates who have worked on NASA programs ranging from the Space Shuttle and International Space Station to Artemis.

UL also became the first university in Louisiana to design, build and successfully launch a functioning satellite into space in 2007. It has since launched three satellites and is developing another through its student-led Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment program.

University researchers are also working on technologies with potential applications beyond Earth, including methods for growing plants in microgravity and systems capable of converting waste into water, oxygen and energy.

That history suddenly has a major commercial space project developing practically in UL's backyard.

The Opportunity Is Bigger Than SpaceX

This is where Louisiana should think bigger.

Landing SpaceX is one accomplishment.

Building an aerospace industry around it would be another.

A project of this magnitude will require contractors, suppliers, logistics companies, engineers, technology firms, fabricators and countless supporting businesses.

Louisiana companies should be competing for that work.

UL Lafayette is already helping businesses pursue opportunities in the aerospace sector. Since 2021, the Louisiana APEX Accelerator housed at the university has assisted 16 clients that secured 136 NASA prime contracts and subcontracts worth more than $51 million combined.

That's the type of infrastructure that could become increasingly valuable as SpaceX establishes itself in South Louisiana.

Acadiana has spent generations developing an industrial workforce around oil and gas, offshore operations, marine fabrication, construction and energy.

Those skills won't disappear because rockets arrive in Vermilion Parish.

Many of them could become part of the foundation for an entirely new industry.

Keeping the Jobs Here

Louisiana has seen this problem before.

Major projects arrive, billions of dollars are invested and enormous amounts of work are created — but not every dollar or every high-paying job remains in Louisiana.

SpaceX presents an opportunity to approach things differently.

If Louisiana universities and technical colleges can prepare workers before the demand arrives, and if Louisiana businesses can qualify to compete for contracts and supplier opportunities, the economic impact could extend far beyond the jobs directly created by SpaceX.

UL Lafayette appears to recognize that opportunity.

Kolluru said the university's ambition goes beyond simply having a launch site nearby. The larger objective is making sure the companies, research, scientists, engineers and high-value jobs surrounding the emerging industry also develop in Louisiana.

That's the right question for Acadiana to be asking now.

Not simply:

How many people will SpaceX employ?

But:

How much of the economy surrounding SpaceX can Louisiana build here?

If Starbase Louisiana develops on the scale being discussed, the answer could affect Acadiana for generations.

Residency Attack on Blake Miguez Runs Into Some Inconvenient Facts

Rick Edmonds held a press conference Wednesday to amplify a residency complaint against his congressional opponent, State Sen. Blake Miguez.

The allegation generated headlines.

But before campaign rhetoric becomes accepted as fact, there are several inconvenient details worth examining.

First, the complaint is exactly that — a complaint. It is not a finding that Miguez violated Louisiana law.

Second, WBRZ reports that Miguez currently maintains a homestead exemption in Iberia Parish and remains registered to vote there.

Third, the man who filed the complaint, New Iberia resident David Levy, is a former Democratic candidate for the Louisiana House.

Those facts don't automatically dispose of the legal question raised in the complaint. Louisiana has residency requirements for state legislators, and Attorney General Liz Murrill's office now has 20 days to investigate.

But they provide important context that can get lost amid a campaign press conference.

What Edmonds Is Arguing

The complaint centers on statements Miguez has made about his longstanding connections to Baton Rouge.

Miguez attended LSU, earned his law degree at Southern University and has maintained ties to the Baton Rouge area. He has said he has lived in both Baton Rouge and New Iberia during his adult life.

Edmonds argues those statements conflict with Miguez's continued residency in Senate District 22, which includes portions of Iberia, Lafayette and St. Martin parishes.

That's a question the Attorney General's review can address.

Until then, an accusation shouldn't be confused with a conclusion.

The Mississippi Problem

There is also considerable irony in residency becoming one of Edmonds' principal lines of attack.

Edmonds serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in McComb, Mississippi.

Edmonds says he lives in Baton Rouge and commutes to Mississippi to preach — an explanation that deserves to be reported accurately.

But if outside connections are going to become a defining issue in this campaign, Edmonds' own Mississippi connections are relevant to that discussion.

Then came another Mississippi connection.

The Mississippi Department of Revenue showed a tax lien of more than $5,000 involving income Edmonds earned from his church position in McComb.

Edmonds' campaign said he was unaware of the outstanding balance because the notice went to an old Baton Rouge address and subsequently said the debt had been paid.

That doesn't establish that Edmonds resides in Mississippi.

It does demonstrate why political campaigns should be careful when turning questions about an opponent's geography into the centerpiece of an attack.

Look Beyond the Attack

Lost in the latest round of accusations is the actual record voters have available to examine.

Miguez was elected to Louisiana Senate District 22 in 2023 and represents portions of Iberia, Lafayette and St. Martin parishes.

He is a husband and father, manages his family's oil-and-gas business and previously served in the Louisiana House before being elected to the Senate.

His record in Baton Rouge gives voters something much more substantial to evaluate than competing residency accusations.

They can examine his votes.

They can examine the legislation he has supported.

They can examine his positions on taxes, spending, gun rights, immigration, elections and other issues important to Louisiana Republicans.

And they can compare that record directly with Edmonds'.

Let the Facts Catch Up With the Headlines

None of this means the residency complaint should be ignored.

Investigate it.

Determine the facts.

And report whatever the Attorney General's Office ultimately finds.

But that's very different from treating the accusation itself as proof.

As things stand today, Miguez remains the elected senator for District 22. WBRZ reports that he remains registered to vote in Iberia Parish and maintains a homestead exemption there. The Attorney General has not issued a finding that he violated Louisiana's residency requirements.

Those facts deserve at least as much attention as the press conference.

The 6th District race should provide plenty of opportunity for Blake Miguez and Rick Edmonds to debate their records, their policies and what each would actually do in Congress.

For now, Edmonds has chosen to put residency front and center.

The Attorney General's investigation — not campaign rhetoric from either side — will determine whether the accusation has legal substance.

Until then, voters would do well to distinguish the headline from the evidence.

Louisiana Puts Another $50 Million Behind Its Push for Major Economic Development Projects

Louisiana is putting another $50 million on the table as the state continues an aggressive effort to prepare industrial sites before companies come calling.

Louisiana Economic Development announced this week that applications for the second round of the state's FastSites program will open October 1 and run through December 1.

The program provides funding for infrastructure and improvements intended to make Louisiana properties more competitive for major economic development projects.

Unlike the traditional model of waiting until a company selects a community before addressing roads, utilities and other infrastructure needs, FastSites is designed to get that work moving beforehand.

Projects competing in the new round must be development-ready, capable of beginning construction within nine months, include matching funds and demonstrate a path for repayment.

The $50 million round is part of the $200 million Site Investment and Infrastructure Fund established by the Louisiana Legislature.

For Acadiana, there is already a significant example of what this program can mean.

Earlier this year, Louisiana committed $10 million in FastSites funding toward infrastructure improvements at Acadiana Regional Airport in New Iberia. That investment is supporting a planned $74 million hangar and site development connected to the expansion of Aviation Exteriors Louisiana.

Louisiana Economic Development estimates that project could ultimately generate 845 new job opportunities in the Acadiana region.

That is what makes the second round worth watching.

Louisiana has recently announced enormous private investments ranging from artificial intelligence data centers to aerospace, manufacturing and energy projects. But winning the next project may depend on whether communities have usable industrial property when companies begin looking.

A site with inadequate electrical capacity, water, sewer, road access or other infrastructure can quickly find itself eliminated from consideration.

FastSites is an attempt to address that problem before a prospect ever arrives.

The question for Acadiana now is which local governments and economic-development organizations will pursue a piece of the next $50 million — and what properties they believe could become the region's next major employment centers.

Applications open October 1.

For a region now preparing for growth associated with aerospace, advanced manufacturing and other major investments, that is a process worth following closely.

Erika Kirk: Charlie Answered His Calling

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Who shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’”

That was one of Charlie’s favorite Bible verses, one he repeated often. He not only believed it, but also lived it out fully and deeply.

My husband lived that calling in so many ways: Talking to people on his show, debating students on campus, registering neighbors to vote, starting conversations with anyone he could about saving the future of our country.

Thank you for remembering my husband, for honoring the life he lived, for firmly standing alongside us, and for remaining faithful to the mission he gave his life to. 

Grief does not relieve us of the calling the Lord has prepared for us. 

So, we continue building. We pray for our neighbors. We pray for our enemies. We pray for our country. We fight for the future. We answer the Lord, saying, “Here I am! Send me.”

Thank you for being a part of the Turning Point USA family. Remember, you have so many others to lean on as we carry forward, just as you have been there for me. My prayers are with you.

Let’s faithfully run our race and carry the torch that was entrusted to us. In Charlie’s words: “Onward!”

For freedom and for Charlie,

Erika Kirk 
Turning Point USA
Chief Executive Officer

Chairman Babcock: Louisiana Is Competing Again

Louisiana spent too many years watching transformative investments go to Texas, Florida, and other Southern states.

That is changing.

SpaceX has chosen Vermilion Parish for a major new operation, putting Louisiana squarely in America’s new space race.

In a new guest column, Republican Party of Louisiana Chairman Derek Babcock explains why this historic announcement did not happen by accident.

Under Governor Jeff Landry and Republican leadership, Louisiana has lowered taxes, cut barriers to investment, strengthened workforce development, and positioned our state to compete for the industries and jobs of the future.

And the results are becoming impossible to ignore.

Louisiana has secured more than $250 billion in announced investment since 2024 across energy, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, technology, and now aerospace.

Meta: $50+ billion
Amazon: $12 billion
Hyundai Steel: $5.8 billion
Woodside Louisiana LNG: $17.5 billion
Venture Global: $18 billion expansion
Commonwealth LNG: $13 billion final investment decision

As Chairman Babcock writes, "Louisiana is competing again, and Louisiana is winning."

Read more: Guest Column: SpaceX announcement shows Louisiana is competing again

Louisiana GOP Endorses Conservative Champions for November 3

Party Calls on Voters to Stay Vigilant Against the Radical Left Agenda

Baton Rouge, La. – Louisiana Republicans are in a fight for the future of our state and our nation. The radical left continues to push open borders, higher taxes, weak-on-crime policies, attacks on parental rights, and an energy agenda that would crush Louisiana jobs. The Republican Party of Louisiana will not stand down. We will remain vigilant, and we will back candidates who will fight for the Constitution, safer communities, and a stronger Louisiana in November.

The choice this fall is clear. Republicans stand for secure borders, energy dominance, and the rights of parents to direct their children’s education. We stand for law and order, lower taxes, and an economy that rewards work instead of punishing it. The left’s agenda is the opposite: more government, more chaos, and less freedom.

That is why the Republican Party of Louisiana is announcing official party endorsements for the November 3, 2026 election. These candidates have earned the party's confidence because they share our values and will take the fight back against the progressive radical agenda.

The Republican Party of Louisiana has endorsed the following candidates: 

• Julia Letlow (US Senate)

• Representative Steve Scalise (1st Congressional District)

• Peter Williams (2nd Congressional District)

• Representative Clay Higgins (3rd Congressional District)

• Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (4th Congressional District)

• Misti Cordell (5th Congressional District)

• State Senator Rick Edmonds (6th Congressional District)

• State Senator Blake Miguez (6th Congressional District)

• Mike Sigur (State Representative 92nd District)

• Joseph Cao (BESE District 1)

• Stephanie Hilferty (Public Service Commission District 1)

• John Atkins (Public Service Commission District 5)

• Lori Simpson-Taylor (Mayor, City of Bogalusa)

• Hugo A. Holland, Jr. (District Judge 1st Judicial District Court, ES 3, Div. F)

• Lindon Bennett Magee (District Judge 21st Judicial District Court, Division E)

• Alan Seabaugh (District Attorney 1st Judicial District Court)

• Cy D'Aquila, Jr. (District Attorney 20th Judicial District Court)

• Sherman Mack (District Attorney 21st Judicial District Court)

• Salvador "Sal" Brocato III (Judge 1st Parish Court, Division A, Jefferson)

• Jessica Raines (Judge 1st Parish Court, Division B, Jefferson)

• Megan Garretson (East Baton Rouge School Board District 1)

• Nathan Rust (East Baton Rouge School Board District 6)

• Michael Vincent (East Baton Rouge School Board District 7)

• Emily Soule (East Baton Rouge School Board District 8)

• Patrick Martin (East Baton Rouge School Board District 9)

• Matt Shields (Caddo School Board District 4)

• Katie McLain (Caddo School Board District 10)

• Neil Watkins (Mayor, Town of Iowa)

Graphics for each of the endorsed candidates can be found here

###

About the Republican Party of Louisiana
The Republican Party of Louisiana is dedicated to advancing conservative principles, supporting Republican candidates, and promoting policies that strengthen families, grow the economy, and protect individual freedoms across the state.

To Beat China, America Must First Cut Its Own Red Tape

Don't give Beijing sole control of new treatments and life-saving therapies

Jeffrey Mazella

August 15, 2026

American leadership in biotechnology resulted from decades of investment. It consists of a market-driven system that rewards critically necessary innovation and a regulatory framework built to move science from lab to patient faster than anywhere else in the world.

And for most of the past half-century, our leadership went unchallenged. In recent years, however, that has shifted.

China has made biotech a national priority by dedicating sustained government financing and long-term industrial planning to the industry.

Unfortunately for the United States, it’s working.

China’s workforce claims high rates of advanced degree graduates in STEM disciplines. Over the past decade, the government has cut red tape to streamline review and approval processes and has bolstered domestic patent protections.

China has established the infrastructure needed to take a molecule from discovery to clinical trial 50% to 70% faster than the rest of the world. As a result, it is closer than ever to securing leadership of the global biotech industry.

Since 2015, for instance, the share of early-stage drug programs originating in China has quadrupled, reaching a high of 35% in 2024.

This past summer, the first-ever study originating in China was featured at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and its resulting therapy is now under review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a likely preview of many more to come.

Projections indicate that Chinese drugs could make up 35% of FDA approvals by 2040 – a sevenfold increase from the current 5%.

Even without China’s ascent, however, U.S. biotech strength faces mounting risk. New and existing policies from Washington make it increasingly difficult to innovate at home and create unnecessary interventions that the free market could easily resolve.

Federal and state efforts to implement drug price controls stifle investments into research and development. Venture capital-backed rounds of funding for U.S. biotech dropped by over 25% percent from 2024 to 2025.

Needless bureaucracy at the FDA delays early-stage U.S. trials by years, with one recent analysis revealing that FDA effectiveness-review postponements of one to six years cost consumers and producers $4 trillion to $61 trillion in foregone combined value.

Attempts to weaken or reverse critical patent protections discourage Americans’ innovative spirit.

Unfortunately, the newest idea from Washington for countering China’s rise threatens to compound the problem. The Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act (COINS) Act gives the U.S. Treasury Department the power to restrict or block U.S. investment in China and other countries of concern for sectors it considers security risks.

The legislation was conceived to target technologies related to artificial intelligence, super-computing and others, but U.S. officials are now floating the idea of adding biopharmaceuticals to the list of affected industries.

Doing so would only aggravate matters by cutting American companies off from the licensing deals, joint research and vendor agreements that allow U.S. firms to discover, develop and deliver treatments built in part on early-stage compounds developed in China.

In other words, China would be handed sole control of those new treatments and life-saving therapies, threatening to delay or outright restrict U.S. patient access.

This is not the way to win the race against China. Instead, the U.S. must lean into what already sets our nation apart: a free-market spirit that promotes and rewards innovation unburdened by unnecessary government red tape.

President Trump has already shown that this kind of overhaul is possible. His permitting reform efforts cut through years of regulatory sprawl to get energy and infrastructure projects moving again. The same can and should be done for America’s biopharmaceutical industry.

In June, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched “Operation TrialBlazer,” a new initiative to strengthen American leadership in clinical research, fast-track breakthroughs and guarantee patient access to cutting-edge therapies.

The FDA, acknowledging China’s gains in biomedical research, is now soliciting feedback through a request for information on a promising pilot program intended to streamline the process from drug identification to first-in-human study.

That’s good news, but leaders must further prioritize modernizing the FDA so that safe trials are counted in months rather than years, strengthen IP frameworks and increase investment incentives to drive more R&D.

Well-intentioned attempts to protect national security interests must be precisely targeted to specific threats, not applied so broadly as to undercut American biopharmaceutical competitiveness or leave patients unable to access the treatments of tomorrow.

Beijing isn’t slowing down to wait for Washington. Counterproductive efforts like banning outbound biotech investment won’t speed America up. It’s time for the U.S. to accelerate efforts to cut red tape and step on the gas.

The only way to beat China is to outcompete it.

Jeffrey Mazella is president of the Center for Individual Freedom.

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KEENAN: Congress Must Lock In America’s Chip Lead Before China Closes the Window

America builds the best computer chips in the world, and China’s Communist Party wants them.

That single fact should drive the entire debate in Washington over artificial intelligence export controls, because what’s at stake isn’t a niche trade dispute between two economies. It’s whether the most important technology of this century gets built on American soil, by American workers, under American rules, or whether we hand Beijing the tools to catch up to us militarily.

That last word matters more than people realize, because there is no such thing as a purely commercial Chinese tech company. Under Chinese law, every business of any size operates with a Communist Party committee embedded inside it, and under Beijing’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, any breakthrough a private Chinese firm makes in AI, chips, or advanced manufacturing is available to the People’s Liberation Army on demand. China’s own National Intelligence Law requires companies to hand over data and cooperate with state intelligence work whenever asked, no court order required. So when we talk about China “competing” with American chipmakers in a free market, we’re using the wrong words entirely. There is no free market on the other side of that transaction. There’s the Chinese state, using private companies as a front, and every dollar of ground that Chinese business gains, the Chinese military gains right alongside it.

That’s why the usual free-trade instinct, that competition is good and government should stay out of the way, doesn’t apply here. Competition assumes both sides are playing the same game. China isn’t. It’s a system where the state directs capital, protects favored firms, and treats intellectual property theft as an arm of national strategy, not a violation of it. We’ve seen this play out again and again, from Chinese manufacturers copying Tesla’s designs down to the dashboard, to counterfeit iPhones built on stolen Apple engineering, all while Beijing’s government not only looks the other way but frequently subsidizes and shields the theft. When American chip technology ends up inside a Chinese AI system, it isn’t feeding a competitor in a fair fight. It’s feeding a government that treats every private success as state property the moment it’s useful.

This isn’t a new pattern either. The U.S. share of global semiconductor manufacturing collapsed from 40 percent in 1990 to just 12 percent today, largely because policymakers let production drift overseas and assumed markets would sort it out. Solar panels and batteries followed the same script, and in both cases China’s state-directed industrial machine, not some neutral marketplace, is what took the ground we gave up. AI infrastructure represents trillions of dollars in coming investment. Strong export controls are what keep that buildout here, instead of in China or in third countries willing to quietly reroute American hardware to a Communist Party that will use it for whatever purpose it decides serves the state.

Critics claim controls hurt American chipmakers, but the record says otherwise. The two years following the first major round of restrictions were among the best on record for U.S. chipmaking equipment suppliers, as customers outside China filled the gap within months. Nvidia profits from selling chips, including to China, but Washington’s job is to protect national security and America’s economic edge, not to maximize one company’s quarterly numbers, especially when that company’s Chinese customers answer to Beijing whether they admit it or not.

Which brings us to the piece that should worry Americans most: this is ultimately about who wins the next war. Advanced AI will power everything from autonomous weapons to military intelligence and battlefield decision-making, and because of military-civil fusion, there is no meaningful line in China between a chip that trains a chatbot and a chip that trains a targeting system. Every AI gain China books commercially is a gain its military can draw on directly.

China knows it’s behind, and it knows chips are the bottleneck. The founder of DeepSeek, China’s answer to ChatGPT, has said chip access, not money and not talent, is his company’s single biggest obstacle. That hasn’t stopped Beijing from trying to cheat its way around the rules, using the same state-directed playbook it uses everywhere else. Smugglers have moved hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted GPUs into China, some of it hidden in prosthetic baby bumps and packed alongside shipments of live lobsters. Huawei, a company with deep ties to the Chinese state and military, ran a shell company to illegally source more than two million chips out of Taiwan before it got caught. Front companies keep popping up in third countries for the sole purpose of buying chips their real end users aren’t legally allowed to have.

Because computing power roughly doubles every two years, the American chips shipping today outpace anything China can build on its own, and that gap compounds if it’s allowed to hold. Some estimates put Chinese AI training costs at ten times higher than American costs by 2027, if controls stay in place.

The technology leadership case follows the same logic. Nvidia and the rest of the American chip industry supply virtually every major AI system on the planet, including systems operating inside China, because there’s no credible Chinese alternative at scale. Huawei’s best chip, the Ascend, doesn’t come close to Nvidia’s leading products, and China can’t manufacture them in real volume anyway. The CEO of ASML, the company that makes the world’s most critical chip-manufacturing equipment, has said current restrictions will leave China 10 to 15 years behind the West in advanced chip production. That’s the margin worth defending, and the next two to four years are the decisive window. If controls hold, American training clusters keep pulling further ahead with each new generation of hardware. If they weaken, a state-directed Chinese military-industrial complex closes that gap during the most consequential stretch in the history of the technology.

There’s a global dimension too. Right now there’s almost no Chinese AI hardware deployed outside China’s own borders, because Chinese chips simply can’t compete. Countries building their AI infrastructure on American chips stay inside a U.S.-aligned technology ecosystem. Countries that build on Chinese chips become dependent on a supply chain the Chinese Communist Party can shape, monitor, or cut off at will. Export controls are how America keeps the rest of the world in its orbit rather than Beijing’s.

The goal is preserving America’s lead during the window when it matters most, the years when AI capability is advancing fastest and today’s advantage compounds into tomorrow’s dominance, or evaporates. This was never a fair fight between two private sectors, and pretending otherwise is how we lose it. China’s government is trying to build the most powerful military AI in history using American-made chips and a private sector that exists to serve the state. Congress needs to pass strong, permanent controls before that window closes for good.

https://thehayride.com/2026/07/keenan-congress-must-lock-in-americas-chip-lead-before-china-closes-the-window/

OPINION: Want Lower Drug Costs? Start With the Middlemen

Here's a question worth asking anyone who promises to lower your drug costs: do you even know where the money goes right now? Because for most of the prescriptions filled in Louisiana, the honest answer is that no one outside the industry does.

That's by design. The Pharmacy Benefit Managers who sit between drug companies and patients negotiate the discounts, decide which medicines your plan covers, and set what you owe at the register, all behind a curtain almost nobody gets to look behind. A rebate gets negotiated on your medication, and whether a cent of it ever reaches you is anyone's guess. When a system is that opaque, it's usually opaque for a reason.

Which is what makes Washington's fixation on Most Favored Nation pricing so frustrating. That plan would tie our drug prices to what other countries pay, chasing manufacturer list prices while ignoring the murky middle where Louisiana families actually lose money. Worse, it would import the rationing and treatment limits those countries accept in exchange for their lower prices. It's a headline, not a solution.

You can't fix what you can't see. The first real reform is forcing daylight onto how PBMs operate, so the savings meant for patients stop vanishing along the way.

Congress is home this month, and an election is coming. I'd ask Louisiana's delegation to choose substance over slogans: demand transparency from the middlemen, and leave the foreign price controls where they belong.

Cason Key 

In Disarray and Out of Cover: The Coalition Fighting Louisiana's Economy

John Fleming's loss to Julia Letlow in the June 27 runoff wasn't just a defeat for one candidate. It was Louisiana voters rejecting the coalition standing behind him, and the wreckage that coalition left behind tells you exactly what it was really about.

For months, groups like Save My Louisiana (SML), the Louisiana Citizens Advocacy Group (LACAG), and the LA CO2 Alliance branded themselves as grassroots conservatives defending landowners from carbon capture pipelines. But strip away the branding and what's left looks a lot less like conservatism and a lot more like the broader anti-CCS movement's real playbook: opposition not just to CCS, but to industrial development, energy infrastructure, and economic growth generally, dressed up in property-rights language to make it palatable in rural, red parishes.

The money trail matches that pattern. The Pelican Institute has documented $115.5 million flowing into Louisiana's anti-oil-and-gas network from out-of-state funders since 2020, roughly 98 percent of everything these groups have collected. That's not a grassroots landowner movement. That's a national environmental coalition financing a Republican messenger.

And when the mask slipped in June, it slipped hard. LACAG published an infographic accusing its own ally, the LA CO2 Alliance, of running fake bot accounts, after the LA CO2 Alliance had asked LACAG multiple times to check its work. The wife of LACAG's founder called the group a vehicle for a fake network instead of walking it back, and LA CO2 Alliance said they were “pissed” and called it BS.

That wasn't isolated. House Natural Resources Chairman Brett Geymann turned on the movement after it turned on him, saying grassroots movements collapse from the inside once allies get treated like enemies. Congressman Clay Higgins was branded "Captain Snowflake" after he demanded Fleming apologize for circulating a doctored AI video of Julia Letlow. SML fired off an open letter calling him disloyal unless he backed down. He didn't. Fleming never apologized, and Higgins endorsed Letlow instead.

Meanwhile, Fleming's own supporters were caught openly urging Democrats to re-register Republican just to vote for him, while others in the same Facebook threads cheered each other toward backing Democrat Jamie Davis over Trump-endorsed Letlow. The Sierra Club's Angelle Bradford was right there applauding it.

That's the real tell. A movement that will trade a Trump-endorsed Republican for a Democrat. It was a left-aligned coalition that found a convenient host in Fleming, and Louisiana voters saw through it. Letlow's win, and Fleming's collapse, was the message, and it's worth watching whether these groups actually take the hint or simply regroup under a new banner.

That new banner is already being stitched together, aimed at whatever comes next for Louisiana's economy – data centers, LNG terminals, or SpaceX launches – because standing in the way was always the point.

President Trump Approves All Requested Federal Disaster Assistance for Louisiana Following Tropical Storm Arthur

Today, Governor Jeff Landry and Congresswoman Julia Letlow announced that President Trump has now approved all of Louisiana’s requests for support in parishes impacted by Tropical Storm Arthur. This now includes all assistance requested for Avoyelles, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry Parishes. It also adds St. Charles and Winn Parishes for Public Assistance support.

"We want to thank President Trump for approving every disaster assistance request we submitted for the communities impacted by Tropical Storm Arthur. We also want to thank Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for his leadership and partnership throughout this process. This support will help our local governments recover more quickly, restore critical infrastructure, and continue moving Louisiana forward,” said Governor Landry and Congresswoman Letlow.

Background:

This approval makes FEMA Public Assistance available for eligible government entities and certain private nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship, in the five parishes to support response and recovery efforts, including reimbursement for qualifying disaster-related costs.

Public Assistance (PA) is FEMA’s largest grant program providing funds to assist communities responding to and recovering from major disasters or emergencies declared by the President. The program provides funding for emergency assistance to save lives and protect property and assists with funding for permanently restoring community infrastructure affected by a federally declared incident.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has awarded a $1.6 million grant to The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Human Trafficking Prevention

The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Human Trafficking Prevention has been awarded a $1.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) to create the Louisiana Human Trafficking Task Force in partnership with Louisiana State Police. 

“Those who traffic and exploit innocent people will find no refuge in Louisiana,” said Governor Landry. “We will continue to hold traffickers accountable, protect victims, and give our law enforcement the tools they need as we work to make our communities safer. I'd like to thank acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and President Trump for their continued dedication to Louisiana.”

The task force aims to strengthen investigations into human trafficking and support Louisiana law enforcement agencies through training and technical assistance, interagency coordination, and victim service collaboration. The task force will be operated by Louisiana State Police, as the subrecipient of the grant funding. 

"Louisiana State Police is committed to working with our local, state, and federal partners to rescue victims, identify offenders, and combat exploitation and trafficking," said Colonel Frank Besson, Louisiana State Police Superintendent. "We are grateful to receive this funding, which will strengthen training, improve coordination among our law enforcement partners, and enhance our response to human trafficking across Louisiana. Protecting our most vulnerable citizens remains one of our highest priorities, and we will continue working tirelessly to hold offenders accountable while ensuring the safety of Louisiana's children."

“For years, Louisiana has led the nation in its response to human trafficking. We have enacted strong laws, invested in victim services, and expanded training and awareness,” said Mary Kate Andrepont, Executive Director of the Office of Human Trafficking Prevention. “This grant funding marks another step in our state’s trailblazing path. The Louisiana Human Trafficking Task Force will set a new standard for victim-centered investigations and multidisciplinary collaboration. We are excited to launch this new initiative with Louisiana State Police and grateful for the support of U.S. DOJ in advancing our shared mission to deliver justice to victims."

Human Trafficking Prevention is a key part to keeping Louisiana safe. Learn more about human trafficking and resources in your community at humantrafficking.la.gov. 

CLARITY Act Isn't Innovation; It's a Loophole for Big Tech to Raid Main Street

John Thune just told Bloomberg Government the Senate will vote on the CLARITY Act before the August recess, and he's hoping to pick up Democrat votes to get it across the finish line. Cynthia Lummis says a new version of the bill is coming out in the next few days ahead of that vote. 

Folks, we need to pay attention to this one, because what's being sold as a crypto modernization bill is actually an open door for Big Tech to muscle into the financial system with none of the accountability that's supposed to come with it.

Here's the part nobody in Washington wants to say out loud. CLARITY hands stablecoin issuers a regulatory framework that lets them function like banks, taking deposits, moving money, offering yield, without actually being banks. That means the same tech giants who already control how we communicate, how we shop, and how we get our news would now get a foothold in how we save and move our money too, with none of the accountability that traditionally comes with that kind of power. No real deposit insurance the way Louisianans understand it, none of the oversight that's supposed to keep a handful of massive companies from consolidating even more control over everyday life.

Big Tech has spent the last decade proving it can't be trusted with the power it already has. Censorship of conservative voices, manipulation of what people see and don't see, quiet data harvesting on every user, all while facing little real consequence in Washington. Now those same companies and their allies want Congress to hand them a new lane into financial services under the banner of innovation. Louisianans should ask themselves whether the people who gave us shadowbanning and algorithmic censorship deserve a bigger role in how their money works.

Conservatives ought to be skeptical any time Washington rushes a bill to the floor because industry lobbyists are worried about running out the clock before year's end. That urgency should raise eyebrows, not lower them. A bill this consequential for who controls the financial system deserves real scrutiny, not a fast track timed to beat the August recess. If CLARITY is as good as its backers claim, it can survive a slower process that doesn't just clear the runway for Silicon Valley to expand its reach even further into American life.

Louisiana's Senate delegation should be asking hard questions before this bill ever reaches the floor. Real conservatism means staying skeptical of concentrated power, whether it comes from Washington or from Big Tech boardrooms. 

CLARITY shouldn't get a pass just because it's dressed up as financial innovation