Edwards, a 49-year-old state legislator, defeated Republican U.S. Senator David Vitter in a hotly contested runoff election that defied the political headwinds in a state where Republicans now hold all statewide offices. The Pelican State has become a ruby-red Republican stronghold; and the far-right senator enjoyed the resources, the name-recognition, and the experience of winning statewide contests he’d need to win. Mary Landrieu got in her failed re-election bid a year ago against Republican U.S. Sen.
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“I think I’m going to be their strongest opponent”, he said of Fleming and Boustany.
His speech at the teacher union’s annual convention in the Golden Nugget Casino complex was his first official address as governor-elect.
Kennedy was also angling for the appointment to Vitter’s Senate seat, if Vitter had been elected governor. As a candidate for governor, he made a big deal about the fact that his mother was “a charity hospital nurse who taught all of her children compassion for other human beings” and that his wife was a public-school teacher. Kelly Ayotte, who will face a tough general election against Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, Republicans boast of steering clear of disastrous primaries that plagued earlier election cycles, most notably 2010 and 2012, when tea party Republicans with odd views on rape and even witchcraft emerged from primaries only to lose the general election.
As he campaigned, Edwards said he wanted to unlock budget protections that keep a few areas of the budget shielded from cuts, expand the state’s Medicaid program to help cover a few health care costs and scale back tax break programs. “David Vitter as their standard bearer”. His obvious Achilles heel was the prostitution scandal that emerged in 2007, when his telephone number came up repeatedly in the records of the infamous “D.C. Madam”. But I did catch it. This breeze has its roots in the songs of the Louisiana Hayride, the food of our Cajun ancestors, the spirituals of our African-American churches and the faith of our Italian [Americans], and the energy of Native Americans and our Hispanic immigrants. And with one final punch, he added, “I will never embarrass you”.
“We’ll see”, he said when asked how he would deal with the BESE super majority that, at least for the time being, opposes his wishes on this issue.
Once he takes office in January, there will be 31 Republican governors, 18 Democrats and one Independent in the country. Turnout in Louisiana, where Democrats won the governorship in late November, was nearly 40 percent.
After a bitter primary battle that had Vitter attacking both of his Republican rivals, Dardenne crossed party lines to endorse Edwards and Angelle never publicly endorsed either candidate. NPR’s Debbie Elliott reports from New Orleans.
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In his first executive decision after being elected the 56 governor of Louisiana, state Rep. John Bel Edwards named state Sen. He says the election is a message that voters are fed up with ultra-partisan politics.
