Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says he won't seek re-election

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said Tuesday morning that he won't seek re-election this fall.

The surprise announcement comes as Donelon, a Republican from Metairie who is serving his fourth term, is attempting to sort out what he has described as a "crisis" in Louisiana's property insurance market. A dozen insurers writing business in the state have failed since 2020's Hurricane Laura, and more than a dozen others have stopped writing business.

The result has been that the number of policyholders covered by Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's insurer of last resort, have more than tripled.

In hopes of reducing Citizens' rolls, Donelon has revived a plan he implemented after Hurricane Katrina to offer state grants to incentivize insurance companies to begin writing business in the state. He was updating the public on that plan when he announced Tuesday that he wouldn't seek reelection.

Donelon said his age and the demands of responding to the insurance crisis in anticipation of the upcoming session were the two factors in his decision. At 78, Donelon is the longest-serving insurance commissioner to serve in a role that has been marked by scandal; three of his predecessors were convicted and served time in federal prison.

"One thing that did play a factor is a state campaign takes a lot of time and I haven't had any time since late last year to put toward my re-election effort," Donelon said at a press conference Tuesday.

Donelon said he last held a fundraiser in Baton Rouge before the holidays. "And since then I haven't been able to lift a finger toward my re-election campaign because of the time that this crisis has demanded of me and my staff," he said.

After Gov. John Bel Edwards convened a special session in February, the Legislature agreed -- at Donelon's request -- to revive an incentive grant program that was first launched after Hurricane Katrina. The state grants are supposed to encourage insurers to write more policies in the state.

Donelon's announcement will likely drum up additional interest in the race for insurance commissioner -- which, though often a sleepy affair, was bound to attract more voter attention this year because of the state of Louisiana's insurance marketplace.

So far, only one candidate has announced a challenge to Donelon: Tim Temple, a Republican who ran against Donelon four years ago. In that race, Temple, a Baton Rouge insurance executive, spent $2 million of his own money and finished with 47% of the vote.

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