HJBR May/Jun 2026

DIALOGUE James Carville is a political consultant with a long list of electoral successes and a knack for steering overlooked campaigns to unexpected victories, remaking political underdogs into upset winners. His most prominent victory came in 1992, when he helped William Jefferson Clinton win the U.S. presidency. His winning streak began in 1986, when he managed Robert Casey’s successful gubernatorial campaign in Pennsylvania. In 1987, Carville helped guide Wallace Wilkinson to the governor’s seat in Kentucky. He continued that streak in New Jersey, helping Frank Lautenberg win election to the U.S. Senate. He next managed the successful 1990 gubernatorial campaign of Georgia lieutenant governor Zell Miller, including a tough primary win over Atlanta mayor Andrew Young. In 1991, Carville — already prominent in many political circles — drew national attention when he led Senator Harris Wofford from 40 points behind in the polls to an upset victory over former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general Richard Thornburgh. In recent years, Carville has not worked as a paid political consultant for domestic politicians or candidates, instead focusing on campaigns in more than 23 countries around the globe, stretching from South America to Europe, Africa, and, most recently, Asia. Carville is also a bestselling author, actor, producer, talk-show host, speaker, and restaurateur. His books include Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home; It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!; All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, with his wife, Mary Matalin; We’re Right, They’re Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives; And the Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr; Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up; Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back; Stickin’: The Case for Loyalty; his children’s book, Lu and the Swamp Ghost ; and 2006’s Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future . Along with pollster Stanley Greenberg, Carville founded Democracy Corps, an independent nonprofit polling organization dedicated to making government more responsive to the American people. Carville also serves as a professor of practice at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he lives with his wife, Mary Matalin, and their two daughters. just satisfied with mediocrity, and I’m not satisfied with that philosophy and that strategy. Editor Where does that come from? Carville Well, education in Louisiana has always been somewhat of a zero-sum game. We have more four-year degree granting institutions than the other states. And as long as the people at Northwestern or ULM, or Southeastern look at every dollar that LSU gets [as] a dollar they don’t get then you’re in a zero-sum game. I’ve always told people, and I believe this, LSU is not the best state university in the country, but it is far and away the most indispensable state university in the country because we don’t have anAuburn. We don’t have a Texas A&M. We don’t have a Clemson. So if you see a physician or a lawyer or an accountant or entrepreneur, they’re more likely to graduate fromLSU than almost any other flagship university in any other state. And I think this governor, this legislature, and this board are staggeringly shortsighted. Editor I agree. Last questions. As your generation retires from leadership, do you believe that you’re leaving our country better than you found it? And what advice would you give for those stepping into leadership now? Carville I think what I’ll tell you is that I agree with Jamie Dimon, who said, “No one ever went broke betting on America.” We have different challenges. We are certainly in the midst of catastrophic leadership in this country, but we’ve come through these things before, and I suspect we will again. We have a lot of assets here. We’ve got a lot of resources. We’ve got systems of higher education — no one else is even close to educating, in higher ed, the number of people we do. There’s a lot of ingenuity in this country. And I think that when we get a wise leader — and I assume we will at some point — we’ll understand the strength we have as a country and what we can be, not what we are. Editor Thank you, again. Carville You are welcome. n 16 MAY / JUN 2026 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE