With a victory that defied political geography and near universal predictions from just months earlier, a previously little-known Democrat, State Representative John Bel Edwards, soundly defeated United States Senator David Vitter in a runoff election on Saturday to become the next governor of Louisiana.
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A Democrat was such a long shot for Louisiana governor past year after Mary Landrieu’s Senate defeat, that her brother Mitch, the mayor of New Orleans, and long-rumored as a gubernatorial candidate, did not even run. One of his ancestors fought with General and later President Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, and his family has been active in Bayou State politics for decades.
Inauguration for the new governor will be held on January 20, 2016.
But Edwards also was exceedingly fortunate in drawing U.S. Sen. Next year’s budget is estimated to have a $1 billion gap.
Edwards will become the first Democratic governor in the Deep South in eight years, since Kathleen Blanco left office in Louisiana eight years ago.
Louisiana Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards holds up an umbrella as he reacts with supporters at his election night watch party in New Orleans, Saturday, November 21, 2015.
Jindal issued a statement congratulating Edwards on Saturday.
Vitter, 54, has been a U.S senator since 2005. “Shame on him. Republican voters spoke and crossed the aisle”.
Edwards won 56 percent of the vote, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Thousands of Republicans went out of their way to vote against Vitter.
Vitter’s stance echoed that of Jindal and 30 other USA governors – all but one of them Republican – who have said they will refuse to cooperate in accepting Syrian refugees or called on Obama to halt the program pending a review of federal screening procedures.
For Democrats, Edwards’s win is a reminder that the party needs to reach out to conservative and independent voters.
Edwards, an anti-abortion, pro-gun Democrat, will replace Jindal, who is unpopular in his state and barred by term limits from seeking re-election. And even in victory, Edwards remains something of a blank slate.
“The people have chosen hope over scorn, over negativity and over distrust of others”, Edwards said in his victory speech, before leading a second-line parade with a jazz band through the French Quarter hotel ballroom. “The people of Louisiana believe we can be better”. Vitter responded to what Politico frames as “the state’s rebuke” by announcing that he’ll retire from the Senate next year. Jindal, who returned to Baton Rouge Tuesday after ending his presidential campaign, did not make an endorsement. “That’s a bipartisan feeling right now”.
“I came up short”, Vitter said in a concession speech, adding that he would not seek re-election to the Senate after his term expires in a year.
The Republican Governors Association tried to use this fact to associate Edwards with President Barack Obama (who Edwards has never met), but as we can see from tonight’s election results, that dog simply wouldn’t hunt this time.
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“I had decided when I decided to make this race with (wife) Wendy that I wanted to pursue new challenges outside the Senate no matter what”.
