Democrat John Bel Edwards Wins Louisiana Governor’s Race, Beats David Vitter

On Saturday night in a run-off election to replace Bobby Jindal, Democrat John Bel Edwards defeated Republican Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in the Louisiana gubernatorial runoff election Saturday, bringing an end to a rough campaign that saw Vitter fall short after entering as the heavy favorite.

John Bel Edwards is the next governor of Louisiana.

Edwards ran a brilliant campaign that neatly capitalized on Vitter’s weaknesses, especially his involvement in the D.C. Madam scandal that rocked Capitol Hill several years ago.

To be sure, Democrats didn’t expect to win the Louisiana governorship, considering Republicans now control every governorship and state legislature in the Deep South.

The Democratic victory was as much about Vitter’s flaws as a candidate as it was about Edwards’ strengths.

He also leveraged his appointment to West Point, where he became an Army Ranger before returning to Louisiana to raise his family.

Nathan Lott, 38, a graduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans, said Vitter’s attacks on Bel Edwards about the Syrian refugees “was not working for me”. Edwards, in contrast, repeatedly talked about how he would be faithful to his state and his wife.

Edwards painted the race as a referendum on Vitter’s character and suggested the U.S. senator didn’t measure up in such a competition.

Edwards clobbered Vitter with one of the most effective attack ads ever – it accused Vitter of answering a call from a prostitute only hours after he had skipped a vote honoring military veterans.

It wasn’t thought a Democrat had a decent shot at winning a statewide race in 2015, let alone the governor’s race.

Not only did he lose this race but Mr. Vitter told supporters Saturday night that he would not run for re-election to the Senate in 2016.

Dardenne crossed party lines to endorse Edwards, while Angelle was conspicuously absent from the public eye after the primary to avoid pressure to endorse his fellow Republican Vitter. Republican strategists in Washington had expressed reluctance to put money behind him, preferring a candidate who would be an easier sell in a tricky election year for Senate Republicans.

Under Jindal, the state cut higher education more than any other USA state and repeatedly balanced its budget with one-time fixes.

The outcome of the election, however, may have turned more on Vitter’s weaknesses than Edwards’ appeal.

Jay Dardenne, Louisiana’s Republican lieutenant governor, finished fourth in the jungle primary.

“I think people have had enough of politics for awhile”, Kennedy said. “I’m eager to refocus on the important work of the United States Senate”, he said.

Vitter is fighting by accusing Edwards of being soft on terrorism. In New Orleans, a reform effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has resulted in 91 percent of students attending charter schools, and the results are impressive: The number of students that can read and do math at their actual grade level in New Orleans has doubled in the last five years.

His victory was once-unthinkable in the conservative state and a stunning turn of events for Vitter, who started his campaign almost two years ago as the race’s front-runner.