Caroline Fayard

Cathryn Caroline Fayard—daughter of Cynthia Felder Fayard and Calvin Clifford Fayard Jr. of Springfield, Louisiana—is a Democrat who sought the office of lieutenant governor in the 2010 State of Louisiana elections. On October 2 she placed second behind Republican secretary of state Jay Dardenne in the state's jungle primary and thus became effectively the Democratic Party nominee for lieutenant governor. The surname is pronounced FAY YARD (/feɪ·jard/), with equal stress on both syllables as in French. On November 2 Fayard lost the election, which was won by Jay Dardenne.

Background

In a 2010 September 18 interview with Action News 17's Ken Benitez, Fayard claimed to have begun in politics with the elements of the Democratic Party associated with Senators J. Bennett Johnston and John Breaux and Representative Billy Tauzin.

Fayard grew up in Denham Springs, Louisiana, and was valedictorian of the Class of 1996 in nearby Baton Rouge's Episcopal High School, where she participated in Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. She received a baccalaureate degree from Dartmouth College in 2000 and a juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 2005. She is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and New York. She served as a congressional page and interned in the White House under President William Jefferson Clinton and then worked for Goldman Sachs and Williams & Connolly before returning to Louisiana as a law clerk for Stanwood R. Duval Jr., a judge for the Federal Eastern District of Louisiana. She has served on the law faculty of Loyola University New Orleans and as of 2010 is in private practice. She has been actively involved in Louisiana Appleseed, Federal Bar Association, Junior League of New Orleans, and Delta Delta Delta.

Fayard is Roman Catholic. She is a member of Saint Thomas Catholic Church in Springfield, Louisiana. In New Orleans she attends Most Holy Name of Jesus Church adjacent to the campus of Loyola University. She is single.

Political campaign 2010

On October 2, in a field of eight candidates, Fayard (24 percent) bested Republican Sammy Kershaw (19 percent) for second place behind Dardenne (28 percent), meaning that Dardenne and Fayard faced each other in a runoff election on November 2. Kershaw and Saint Tammany Parish president Kevin Davis (an eliminated Republican candidate who had 8 percent) soon endorsed fellow Republican Dardenne while Fayard gained the endorsement of eliminated candidate and fellow Democrat state senator Butch Gautreaux (4 percent).

Fayard's party on the evening of October 2 was attended by a number of Republicans intent on seeing the young and previously unknown Democrat.

The runoff campaigns between Dardenne and Fayard soon turned dynamic, with Dardenne describing Fayard as a supporter of U.S. President Barack Obama and same-[...] marriage and an opponent of the death penalty, while Fayard, a first-time candidate who was only slightly over half Dardenne's age, countered that Dardenne represented "the same old crowd" of Louisiana politics.

Among other discussions, Dardenne and Fayard appeared on the October 15 Louisiana: The State We're In magazine televised by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and on an October 22 forum sponsored by the Baton Rouge League of Women Voters.

On October 4, Southeastern Louisiana University political scientist Michael Kurt Corbello commented on Fayard's achieving 24 percent as a rookie candidate in a field of eight aspirants:

She has really got to be the surprise in all of this. ... She has made this a real race. ... This is going to be a very interesting, competitive race. A similar comment came from Rolfe H. McCollister Jr., who, while endorsing Dardenne on the basis of partisan affinities, still attested that "Caroline Fayard has an impressive résumé and made a strong showing for someone in her first race by making the runoff." For a report on Fayard on the campaign trail see

Despite being outspent by the Louisiana Democratic Party while the Republican Party remained financially uncommitted, Dardenne won the 2010 November 2 election. He was sworn in as lieutenant governor on November 22, whereupon chief deputy secretary of state Tom Schedler succeeded Dardenne as secretary of state.

For further information please see Louisiana state elections, 2010#Lieutenant Governor.

Political future

On 2010 October 22, Fayard's name surfaced on talk-radio program Think Tank with Garland Robinette, as a potential competitor for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal in his presumed 2011 reelection campaign. The discussants cited Jindal's high approval ratings and already in-the-bank $7 million campaign fund as unapproachable assets for Democrats other than Fayard. The speculation continued after the election, with Fayard remaining uncommitted.