Democrat John Bel Edwards declared victor in La. governor’s runoff election

Louisiana Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards hugs his wife Donna Edwards as he arrives to greet supporters at his election night watch party in New Orleans, Saturday, November 21, 2015.

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.

In the October 24 election, Edwards garnered 40 percent of the vote to Vitter’s 23 percent.

“John Bel Edwards’ victory shows that Louisiana has turned the page on David Vitter’s scandals and eight years of Bobby Jindal’s failed economic policies”, the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.

Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards hopes to upend the conventional wisdom that the conservative, typically red state will consistently back Republicans for statewide positions. At a, Vitter said of Edwards’ moderate talk on the campaign trail, “There is just this enormous gap between your rhetoric and your record”.

With 92% of the vote in late Saturday, Edwards had 55% of the ballots cast, according to the Louisiana secretary of state’s website.

The US senator also was hampered by high disapproval ratings for his fellow Republican, outgoing Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is blamed for the state’s financial problems. He spent the rest of the brief second round trying to regain his footing, largely by linking Edwards to President Barack Obama in a relentless cascade of negative ads, including several that capitalized on anti-Syrian refugee sentiment after the Paris attacks. Charles Boustany Jr., John Fleming and state Treasurer John Kennedy have made it known that they are looking at seeking Vitter’s seat. Jindal did not endorse a candidate. Neither of his vanquished Republican opponents endorsed him, and one, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, endorsed Edwards.

Taking nothing for granted, Edwards ran a brutal attack ad, implying that Vitter missed a key vote for veterans while speaking to a prostitute.

Although Vitter’s awkward 2007 acknowledgement at a press conference that he had hired a prostitute – who allegedly shared his wife’s first name – should have quickly put an end to his career, Vitter survived.

“I will always be honest with you”.

Vitter’s unpopularity was demonstrated by the success of Billy Nungesser, the Republican in the lieutenant governor’s race.

But perhaps even more than his unpopularity, Vitter was hurt in the closing days of the election by Jindal himself. Soon after, a private investigator working for the Vitter campaign was arrested after surreptitiously filming a group of men at a cafe outside New Orleans – a gathering that included another private investigator, one who had tracked down the escort in the online video.