Kathleen Marie Blanco (née Babineaux; December 15, 1942 – August 18, 2019) was an American politician who served as the 54th governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first and, to date, only woman elected as the state's governor.
When first elected, Blanco outlined her top priorities as providing affordable healthcare, improving the education system in the state, and helping to create a strong and vibrant economy through aggressive economic development initiatives. Her work as governor changed dramatically when, in 2005, coastal Louisiana was severely damaged by two hurricanes that struck less than a month apart. In August, Hurricane Katrina devastated the New Orleans region, an urban area of 1.4 million people. Then, in September, Hurricane Rita struck the southwestern coast, displacing another 300,000 people. More than 200,000 housing units were destroyed, 81,000 businesses closed, entire electrical and telecommunication systems were torn apart, and one million people were made homeless as a result of severe flooding caused by levee failures and storm surges.
Many believed the immediate response from the city, state, and federal governments was inadequate, and Blanco later fully acknowledged there were failures on the part of her administration before and after the storm; however, much criticism, both locally and nationally, was directed at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and at President Bush, for what was seen as a slow initial response to the disaster and an inability to effectively manage, care for and deliver promised resources to those trying to evacuate from New Orleans.
Blanco announced in March 2007 that she would not seek re-election later that year, saying that she would instead "focus [her] time and energy for the [remainder of her term] on the people's work, not on [the] politics" of running for another term. In June 2011 she was diagnosed with cancer, and she died eight years later on August 18, 2019.
She was born Kathleen Marie Babineaux in New Iberia, Louisiana, the daughter of Louis Babineaux and his wife, the former Lucille Fremin, both of Cajun ancestry. Her Babineaux grandfather was a farmer and grocer with a country store, and her father was a small businessman who moved to the rural hamlet of Coteau, a community near New Iberia with one church and one elementary school. Blanco attended Mount Carmel Academy, an all-girls school run by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mount Carmel, which was situated on the banks of Bayou Teche. In 1964, Blanco received a Bachelor of Science in business education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then named the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She was also a member of Kappa Delta sorority. On August 8, 1964, she married Raymond Blanco, a football coach and educator; the couple had six children.
Following college, Blanco taught business at Breaux Bridge High School. She then worked for roughly fifteen years as a stay-at-home mom for her six children. She later worked as a District Manager for the U.S. Department of Commerce during the 1980 Census initiative and with her husband, owned Coteau Consultants, a political and marketing research firm.
Prior to her election as governor, Blanco served twenty years in public office. In 1983, elected as the first woman legislator from the city of Lafayette, she served five years in the Louisiana House of Representatives. In her first term, she and her friend Evelyn Blackmon of West Monroe were two of only five women in both houses of the legislature. Blanco in 1988 defeated the Republican Kernan "Skip" Hand to become the first woman in Louisiana elected to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, a post that she held for seven years, She was also the first woman chairman of the PSC. She was then elected Lieutenant Governor, a post that she held for eight years.
Blanco was elected on November 15, 2003, defeating her Republican opponent Bobby Jindal in the general election, by a margin of 52 to 48 percent. On January 12, 2004, she took the oath of office in both English and French languages, succeeding Murphy J. Foster Jr. She retained Foster's chief of staff Andy Kopplin. She named as the new state commissioner of administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc, who had succeeded her in the state House in 1989 when she became a public service commissioner. Blanco traveled more than her predecessor, seeking new sources of economic development for the state. She visited Nova Scotia and in December 2004 visited Cuba to boost its trade with the state. During this controversial visit, she met with President Fidel Castro, with whom the United States government had no formal diplomatic relations. In 2005, Blanco also visited the Asian countries of Japan, China, and Taiwan.
Despite the upheaval of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, she met all of her initial goals by the end of her term, most notably prioritizing education investment from pre-kindergarten to the university level. She recruited a number of businesses to Louisiana and established policies to lay a foundation for the recovery of coastal Louisiana.
As governor, she was a member of the National Governors Association, and the Democratic Governors Association, and served as president of the Southern Governors' Association.
Blanco tapped Donald E. Hines, a family physician from Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish, as the president of the state Senate. He held the position during her entire administration.
On August 27, 2005, Blanco, speaking about Hurricane Katrina, told the media in Jefferson Parish, "I believe we are prepared. That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about." Later that day, she issued a request for federal assistance and US$9 million in aid to U.S. President George W. Bush, which stated,
... I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal.
Also in the request letter, the governor stated, "In response to the situation, I have taken appropriate action under State law and directed the execution of the State Emergency Plan on August 26, 2005, in accordance with Section 501 (a) of the Stafford Act. A State of Emergency has been issued for the State in order to support the evacuations of the coastal areas in accordance with our State Evacuation Plan."
FEMA issued a statement, dated August 27, that President Bush authorized the allocation of federal resources, following a review of FEMA's analysis of the state's request for federal assistance. A White House statement of the same date also acknowledges this authorization of aid by President Bush. On August 28, Blanco sent a letter to President Bush that increased the amount of aid requested to US$130 million. Mayor Ray Nagin, in response to the offer of an Amtrak train to evacuate New Orleans residents, rejected the offer, declared an emergency, and then canceled it. He then flew to Dallas with his family. President George Bush now declared a State of Emergency and brought in U.S. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré to be in charge of all forces. The president sent members of the National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, the carrier USS Bataan, and the U.S. Air Force. It was the largest deployment of military forces within domestic territory since the United States Civil War.
Blanco oversaw the massive evacuation of 93% of the New Orleans area and the subsequent rescue effort utilizing state employees, law enforcement agencies from across the state and nation, citizen volunteers, and federal emergency services such as the U.S. Coast Guard and other U.S. military forces. More than 60,000 people were rescued and removed from the affected region after the storm. As Commander-in-Chief of the Louisiana National Guard, Blanco called on her fellow governors for troop reinforcement as more than a third of her own soldiers and airmen were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The response from states delivered nearly 40,000 troops to her command, one of the largest domestic activation of troops in the nation's history.