His victory represents the first for a Louisiana Democrat in a statewide contest since 2008.
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Voters might just say theyre done with him, said Roy Fletcher, a longtime Louisiana political consultant. As of this writing, Vitter trailed 55-45 percent, but that was the margin by which Nungesser led his race.
During the campaign, Mr. Edwards emphasized his record as a pro-gun-rights, antiabortion legislator who graduated from West Point and came from a long line of small-town sheriffs. David Vitter, R-La., in Baton Rouge, La.
After a false report surfaced that a male Syrian refugee had gone missing in Louisiana, the Vitter campaign began bombarding voters with robocalls warning that “hordes of Syrians would soon be invading the United States, thanks to Obama”, Tyler Bridges reports in the Washington Post. Jindal suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday.
Edwards – a Democrat, but also a social conservative – capitalized on the scandal.
A by JMC Analytics found Edwards’ lead had shrunk from previous polls, but he still held the advantage. “I commit to you, we will be better”. After Vitter barely squeaked out a victory in the GOP primary, one of his fellow Republican candidates, Lt. Gov Jay Dardenne, crossed the aisle to back Edwards over his own party’s pick. About and more than 140,000 of them were Democrats, according to early voting statistics released by the Louisiana secretary of State.
After a bruising primary last month left state Republicans divided, Edwards seized the opening to become the only Democratic governor south of Virginia.
E-mail messages to Vitter campaign spokesman Luke Bolar were not returned, but in his concession speech Saturday night, Vitter announced that he would not run for reelection to the Senate when his term expires next year. Karen Carter Peterson, the chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said in an email Friday.
Karen Carter Petersen, chairman of the state Democratic Party, called Edwards an “amazing candidate” who connected with voters through his personal integrity. I will never embarrass you. The survey also found that the refugee crisis could help Vitter, with 40 percent of voters saying they were more likely to support Vitter because of it compared to only 36 percent for Edwards.
Vitters wife, Wendy, has stood by him since his veiled apology in 2007.
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And when Vitter entered the race in January 2014 as the frontrunner, he was pulling in tremendous sums of campaign cash and firing up a dominant political machine that he’s used to get himself and his allies regularly elected to Louisiana offices. And that was absolutely the single best day of my life, and the most powerful motivator I had for the rest of my life.
