Sick Of Bobby Jindal, Tired of David Vitter, Louisiana Elects Democratic Governor

Democrat John Bel Edwards won the runoff election for Louisiana governor Saturday, defeating the once-heavy favorite, Republican David Vitter, and handing the Democrats their first statewide victory since 2008. After a bruising primary last month left state Republicans divided, Edwards seized the opening to become the only Democratic governor south of Virginia.

Inauguration for the new governor will be held on January 20, 2016.

Neither Edwards nor Vitter offered detailed roadmaps for tackling the budget woes, and the general outlines they touted were largely similar in approach.

The Vitter campaign lost in no small part because it saw Edwards as an afterthought to be dispatched when the primary was over.

Republicans are losing control of Louisiana’s agenda to perhaps the most left-wing Democrat in the state’s history, and certainly the most left-wing Democrat in modern times. One of the factors helping Edwards was the relative unpopularity of incumbent Governor Bobby Jindal, who was barred from running for re-election. David Vitter, kisses his wife Wendy during his election night watch party in Kenner, La., Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015.

Edwards, a 49-year-old state legislator, defeated Republican U.S. Sen.

Vitter desperately tried to change the narrative in the race from one about his character to race-baiting and attempted to link Edwards to President Obama, who is unpopular in Louisiana. Some 290,000 people in the state have no health coverage, because Jindal refused Medicaid funds under [the Patient Protection Act] on ideological grounds.

The recent debate over the Syrian refugee crisis also didn’t play well for Vitter and and gave Edwards an advantage, as Edwards was able to attack Vitter on the fact that he had missed key hearings on the situation in Syria as a senator. But Edwards also makes a virtue of necessity by calling for Republicans and Democrats in the State Capitol to come together in common goal.

While Vitter’s loss wasn’t necessarily a surprise, his announcement that he would not seek re-election did a few as something of a surprise, at least in its timing. He capitalized on voters’ apparent unease with Vitter and built a campaign on personal integrity. In conceding his final defeat on Saturday, Mr Vitter also announced that he would not run for re-election to the Senate next year.

“I love our great state and it’s wonderful people”, said Edwards to a crowd at his campaign headquarters. “I wish I had a better choice”, said Republican voter Rebecca Simoneaux, according to The Wall Street Journal. “I will never embarrass you”. Roger Villere, chairman of the state Republican party, said: “Make no mistake, Louisiana is a deep red state and our Republican brand is strong”. The runoff election was held yesterday, and ended with Edwards winning 56 percent of the vote.

“Fifteen years ago, I faced my darkest day in life when I had to look my kids in the eye and tell them how badly I’d failed my family”, Vitter said during his closing statement Monday night. And, he pointed out, Edwards “had to run to the right as a conservative, so I think the ideas themselves still won”.