The latest poll on the Louisiana governor’s race shows Republican Stephen Waguespack is gaining ground on GOP state Attorney General Jeff Landry who has been far ahead in previous polls.

Reboot Louisiana, the political action committee (PAC) that is supporting Waguespack, sponsored the poll. It was conducted by Remington Research Group and was concluded on June 25.

Remington, an independent organization, did a poll in March that showed Landry in the lead with 30% to 2% for Waguespack. The latest poll has Landry with 25% and Waguespack with 16%.

The research group in a news release said the poll shows “that likely 2023 Louisiana Election Primary voters are abandoning Jeff Landry’s campaign. Stephen Waguespack has closed the gap with Landry in a short amount of time. The results clearly indicate that the race for governor has narrowed to three candidates.”

Democrat Shawn Wilson, former secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development who led the latest poll, is the third candidate.

Here are the results of the March poll:

Landry, 30%, Wilson, 30%; Republican state Treasurer John Schroder, 10%; Republican state Sen. Sharon Hewitt and independent Hunter Lundy, 4% each; Waguespack, 2%; Republican state Rep. Richard Nelson, 1%; and  undecided, 19%.

Wilson leads the latest poll with 27%. The others are Landry, 25%; Waguespack, 16%; Schroder, 7%; Lundy, 4%;  Hewitt, 3%; Nelson, 0%; and undecided, 18%.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards faced Republican opponents in the 2015 and 2019 gubernatorial runoff elections. It is expected Wilson, who led the latest poll, could end up in the 2023 runoff with a Republican contender.

That is what happened in 2003 when Democrat Kathleen Blanco defeated Republican Bobby Jindal. Republican Mike Foster defeated Democrat Cleo Fields in the 1995 runoff. Democrat Edwin W. Edwards defeated Republican David Duke in the 1991 runoff.

Jindal won in the primary elections of 2007 and 2011. Foster won in the 1999 primary.