Dave Treen

Who was Dave Treen?

David Conner "Dave" Treen, Sr., was an American attorney and politician from Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana – the first Republican Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana since Reconstruction. He was the first Republican in modern times to have served in the U.S. House of Representatives from his state.

A narrow victor in the gubernatorial general election held in 1979, Treen served as governor from 1980–84. He lost his bid for reelection in 1983 to his long-time rival, Democrat Edwin Edwards. He served in Congress from 1973 to 1980. Treen grew up as a Democrat, but became a Republican in 1962 when there were only about ten thousand registered Republicans in the state. At the time of Treen's death in 2009, only a few other living Louisiana Republicans had exceeded his length of tenure in the GOP.