In a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2008, and in a part of the country where Democratic campaigns for governor are mostly suicide missions, a Republican was assumed to have an easy path to victory.
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Edwards, an anti-abortion, pro-gun Democrat, will replace outgoing Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, who is unpopular in his state and barred by term limits from seeking re-election.
“I will be honest with you”.
He told a crowd of supporters in Kenner, “we came up short tonight”. Karen Carter Peterson, the chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said in an email Friday. “I will never embarrass you”. Dardenne said of Vitter. Many of those bitter soundbites from the GOP officials wound up being used in anti-Vitter commercials and direct mail pieces during the runoff campaign. Vitter is now vulnerable headed into his re-election campaign for the U.S. Senate next year and is more likely to draw stronger opponents as his weaknesses have been exposed.
Vitter says he is not going to run again for the Senate seat.
In the October 24 election, Edwards garnered 40 percent of the vote to Vitter’s 23 percent.
The race was one of the most expensive in Louisiana’s history, as candidates and outside groups spent at least $30 million in the mudslinging contest.
The state of Louisiana has elected a new governor. Vitter attacked the other Republicans as free-spending liberals while they labeled Vitter “vicious” and “a liar”, bringing up the prostitution scandal in debates.
A few weeks ago, most everyone expected Edwards would pull off the upset. The Vitter campaign began making robo-calls to voters warning that hordes of Syrians would soon be invading the United States, thanks to President Obama.
Jindal issued a statement congratulating Edwards on Saturday. Democrat John Bel Edwards won the runoff election… Now is the time for everyone to put politics and partisanship aside and make sure our new governor is ready on day one. David Vitter, R-La., in Baton Rouge, La. “Shame on him. Republican voters spoke and crossed the aisle”.
The well-known Vitter was the prohibitive favorite during the early stages of the race, but after sustained attacks targeting his involvement in a 2007 prostitution scandal, he barely defeated two of his Republican challengers and finished in second behind the lesser-known Edwards by 14 points in the jungle primary.
Vitter conceded the election before all of the unofficial results were announced.
That comes just after the terrorist attacks in Paris, which shifted the entire conversation of the race to the issue of whether Syrian refugees should be allowed to settle in Louisiana.
In Louisiana, U.S. Sen. Pollsters for that race projected a narrow lead for Democrat Jack Conway, who was ultimately soundly defeated by Republican Matt Bevin.
Democrats once held all major offices in the South, but that domination has been eroding since the 1970s and collapsed completely during the past two decades. The Louisiana State Troopers Association, which rarely endorses gubernatorial candidates, backed Edwards.
Polls close at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Edwards served in the Army from 1986 until 1996.
Sounding nearly like he blurted out a secret thought accidently, Edwards made his announcement on public radio in February 2013 during an interview with host Jim Engster about Medicaid expansion. That poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
In his victory speech, Edwards alluded to the nasty campaign, saying that Louisianans had “chosen hope over scorn, over negativity and over the distrust of others” He pledged to work with Vitter during his remaining time in the Senate and to “work together regardless of party” – something he will be forced to do with a Republican-controlled Legislature.
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He had only one staffer, Mary-Patricia Wray, who had worked for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers union, until the summer.
