Richard Carbo is a 2006 graduate of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Communications. Following graduation, Richard began working full time for Louisiana’s Governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, where he had been working part-time for the previous two years, including during Hurricane Katrina.
After working on multiple congressional races in Louisiana in 2007 and 2008, Richard moved to Washington, DC to work for Louisiana’s United States Senator, Mary Landrieu. After serving on Sen. Landrieu’s staff for two and a half years, Richard went on to work as Communications Director for Congressman John Barrow in the House of Representatives and on his successful 2012 re-election campaign. Congressman Barrow’s congressional district had been redrawn three times in an attempt to oust him from office, but he went on to beat his Republican opponent by eight points.
In 2015, Richard was dispatched back to Louisiana by the Democratic Governor’s Association to assist the campaign of then-State Representative John Bel Edwards during the runoff race for governor. Edwards won the election by a 12-point margin. Following the campaign, Richard served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Edwards until he assumed the role of campaign manager for the Governor’s re-election campaign in January of 2019. In 2019, Gov. Edwards was the only Democratic incumbent Governor up for re- election in the country.
Over the course of the campaign, Richard oversaw an operation that that set fundraising records, raising more than $22 million for the Governor’s campaign. Despite having more than $50 million spent against him and massive effort from the President of the United States and national Republicans, John Bel Edwards went on to win a second term as Governor. In winning the election, Gov. Edwards became the only Democratic Governor in Louisiana to win reelection in more than 40 years.
Following the campaign, Richard founded Carbo Consulting, a political and strategic communications consulting firm.