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Nick Laborde
Nick Laborde (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Louisiana Public Service Commission to represent District 2. He lost in the primary on November 5, 2024.
Laborde completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Nick Laborde's career experience includes working as a business consultant. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a graduate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Louisiana Public Service Commission election, 2024
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Louisiana Public Service Commission District 2
Jean-Paul Coussan won election outright against Nick Laborde and Julie Quinn in the primary for Louisiana Public Service Commission District 2 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jean-Paul Coussan (R) | 53.9 | 225,468 |
 | Nick Laborde (D)  | 26.3 | 110,140 | |
 | Julie Quinn (R) | 19.8 | 83,055 | |
| Total votes: 418,663 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Craig Greene (R)
Endorsements
Laborde received the following endorsements.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Nick Laborde completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Laborde's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I grew up in the small town of Marksville, Louisiana. My dad served as a councilman and mayor of the town, and I was brought up hearing stories about how we can make things better through public service. My great grandfather was also a mayor, and my great uncle was a legislator and commissioner of administration — service runs in the family. He got into public service because 70 years ago rural parts of Avoyelles Parish lacked reliable access to electricity, and this started a multi-generation commitment to service.
After leaving my hometown, I got both my Bachelor’s in Business Administration and my MBA from UL Lafayette (Geaux Cajuns!), eventually finding my way to Baton Rouge in 2018. I’ve lived in District 2 my whole adult life.
In my professional life, I’ve started a video game development company, helped ship world-famous Crawfish Bread all over the planet, served as the head of HR at a virtual reality training company, and worked as an organizational development consultant to help businesses grow sustainably.
My specialty is building great teams and world-class environments where people love coming to work, and I’d like to do the same for Louisiana.
I’ve seen a lot of what our state has to offer. We have wonderful people, a great culture, and no shortage of ways to have fun — but we’ve still got progress to make.- Accountability. Make Entergy and other utilities pay more — not you, the ratepayer. The days of them price gouging ratepayers must come to an end. Require utilities to commit to greater investment in renewables, especially as they are becoming cheaper. Finally, I don’t — and won’t — take donations from the utilities that the commission regulates.
- Reform. Hold utilities accountable through performance-based regulations (PBRs). Entergy is a massive monopoly that has no desire to benefit you, the ratepayer — the Public Service Commission exists to keep them in check. It’s the commission’s responsibility to ensure utility companies don’t take advantage of ratepayers.
With PBRs, we can make them adopt solutions that bolster our grid, diversify how we generate our power, and better set us up for the future.
Other areas of reform I'm excited about are bringing back 1:1 net metering across the state, as well as pushing to lower the cost of prison phone calls. - Sustainability. Invest in renewable energy to create a broader mix of power generation. Entergy is heavily reliant on natural gas to create electricity, making bills very susceptible to price fluctuations. By diversifying where our power comes from, we drive down costs for ratepayers while also creating a more reliable grid. New battery technology is making renewables more stable and capable of providing strong, stable base load to the grid. Let’s not limit ourselves by putting all of our eggs in one basket when it comes to a vital necessity.
My dad, as mayor, turned my hometown's volunteer fire department into a full-time one -- work that his grandfather, my great grandfather, started before him when he originally established the volunteer fire department decades earlier! I love that generational commitment to helping people and making things better.
State-granted monopolies like Entergy have guaranteed profit, and the Commission does face the reality that these are businesses making decisions to generate revenue. However, the Commission exists to represent and protect the ratepayers. That means that commissioners must ask thoughtful questions and never lose sight of the impact to the ratepayer. You need to understand what it feels like to worry about paying your light bill in those hot Louisiana summers to be able to do this job effectively.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Laborde’s campaign website stated the following:
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The lights need to stay on — and not cost more than a car note to do so. It’s time to move Louisiana forward and hold utilities accountable. We’ll do it by focusing on three things. Reform. Hold utilities accountable through performance-based regulations (PBRs). Entergy is a massive monopoly that has no desire to benefit you, the ratepayer — the Public Service Commission exists to keep them in check. It’s the commission’s responsibility to ensure utility companies don’t take advantage of ratepayers. With PBRs, we can make them adopt solutions that bolster our grid, diversify how we generate our power, and better set us up for the future. Electricity is a basic necessity that we all use, and it’s time to demand better. The status quo means they reap record profits while your light bill can cost more than a car note, and that’s just not right. PBRs incentivize utilities to work in ratepayers’ best interests, getting them to invest in:
Other areas of reform I’m interested in are bringing back 1:1 net metering across the state, and lowering the cost of prison phone calls. Going further, I’ll require utilities regulated by the PSC to publicly submit their action plans on how they’ll mitigate damage from future hurricanes and natural disaster events — and specifically, how they’ll plan to restore service in the event of outages. I’ll also push for a system of improved credits/reimbursements to customers whose service goes out during our now increasingly frequent outages. This way, you will no longer have to take time out of your day to pursue your electric company for disruptions in service when other stressful events are occurring. Finally, I’ll improve communication between utilities and you, the ratepayer. For instance, at my house in 2021, I went outside one day to find that a “smart meter” had been installed that drastically raised my bill — under my service at the PSC, I’ll make sure these companies are required to give a bigger heads-up before making any changes to your utility service. Accountability. Make Entergy and other utilities pay more. I’ll require utilities to absorb more of the costs of new projects, rather than using them as an opportunity to price gouge residents. For example, in April 2024, the PSC approved a $1.9 billion plan for Entergy to improve the grid. However, Entergy only put up $300 million — while we the ratepayers will shoulder the burden of the remaining $1.6 billion. For perspective, in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, Entergy reported nearly $1 billion in earnings. The era of Entergy subsidizing their costs while price gouging ratepayers has to end. Require utilities to commit to greater investment in renewables, and also make them provide a detailed plan and timeline to the public for making those investments happen. Solar and wind energy become cheaper by the day, and diversifying our power generation mix can create a more stable grid. I don’t — and won’t — take donations from the utilities that the commission regulates. Sustainability. Invest in clean, renewable energy to create a broader mix of power generation. Entergy is heavily reliant on natural gas to create electricity, making bills very susceptible to price fluctuations. By diversifying where our power comes from, we drive down costs for ratepayers while also creating a more reliable grid. New battery technology is making renewables more stable and capable of providing strong, stable base load to the grid. My approach involves doing things differently: instead of solar farms, prioritize rooftop solar for homes and businesses. We can also:
Let’s not limit ourselves by putting all of our eggs in one basket when it comes to a vital necessity.[2] |
” |
| —Nick Laborde’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Louisiana Public Service Commission District 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 29, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Nick for Louisiana, “Platform,” accessed October 20, 2024
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State of Louisiana Baton Rouge (capital) |
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