James Carville, Mary Matalin moving out of $3.4M New Orleans 'gem'; here's a look inside (2024)

James Carville and Mary Matalin -- America’s most famous bipartisan power couple -- are selling their Uptown New Orleans mansion.

But they’re not leaving town.

Carville and Matalin are selling their Palmer Avenue home -- the listing price is $3,380,000 -- and moving to a smaller home they own nearby.

Reached Friday by phone, Carville, a Louisiana native nicknamed the “Ragin’ Cajun,” seemed incredulous at the idea that he might consider picking up stakes.

“I live in New Orleans,” he said. “It’s my home. I don’t have an iota of desire to live anywhere else.”

Referring to Matalin, a native of Illinois, he added, “She’s the same way. We never even considered leaving New Orleans.”

Moving from Washington, D.C., Carville and Matalin bought the five-bedroom home in 2008 from New Orleans plaintiffs’ lawyer Morris Bart for $2.2 million. Tim Russert, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” died on the night they moved in, Carville remembered.

Carville and Matalin raised their two daughters there and hosted fundraisers for politicians in the spacious area downstairs. They even let nonprofits hold events there when they were absent. Friends like Donna Brazile, the Democratic political consultant originally from Kenner, have stayed over whenin town.

But now, Carville, who is 76, said, “It’s too much. The kids are gone. We’re older and it’s a challenge.”

Built in 1906, the house has 8,200 square feet, a terrace overflowing with plants and a swimming pool with five fountains.

“It’s quite the gem,” said Carmen Duncan, the listing agent for Re/Max.

Carville grew up in a town named after his grandfather, in Iberville Parish, where his father was the postmaster and ran a general store, and became nationally known for his role in helping Bill Clinton win the White House in 1992. He’s always been a loud booster of LSU; he once joked that he graduated with a “4.0 … blood-alcohol level.”

Along the way, he and Matalin somehow became a couple even though he was an ardent Democrat and she was an ardent Republican who served as a senior campaign consultant when then-Vice President George Bush was elected president in 1988 and when he ran for re-election four years later. Matalin has said that she fell in love with New Orleans while here for the 1988 Republican national convention.

After moving here in 2008, they became so intertwined in civic affairs that Gambit named them New Orleanians of the Year in 2012.

"New Orleans is a state of mind, joy for the heart, sustenance for the soul, spice for every palate," Matalin said in an email Friday. "The sui generis house on Palmer was an epic life epoch, for which we will be grateful in perpetuity. There is no other city with magic around every corner, so looking forward to the next act."

On Friday, Carville elaborated on why the couple intends to stay in New Orleans.

“We got a lot of friends here. It’s a place I’ve always cared about. I just love it. My family’s here. My food is here. I don’t want to grow old among strangers.”