John Bel Edwards elected governor

If Edwards wins, it would be the first statewide win for Democrats since 2008.

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. “I trust the people of Louisiana”, Jindal said.

Supriya and I would like to congratulate Governor-elect John Bel Edwards for his impressive victory.

Republican challenger Jeff Landry defeated the GOP incumbent in Saturday night’s runoff election, ending Caldwell’s tenure as Louisiana’s top lawyer after two terms.

“As for me, I’m eager to refocus on the important work of the United States Senate”, Vitter said.

Edwards received 56% of the votes with all precincts in.

The lieutenant governor leads Louisiana’s Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism and serves as the figurehead for the state’s $11 billion tourism industry.

Vitter supporters say the two-term senator has been hampered by the unpopularity of outgoing Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is leaving behind a $487 million deficit.

Jindal, who dropped out of the 2016 presidential race on Tuesday and has been plagued by low approval ratings at home, told reporters this week that he will not disclose who he’s supporting in the race between Edwards and Vitter.

On the other side were three strong Republicans in a bare-knuckle family feud for the other spot – Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and Vitter.

Vitter, originally the frontrunner, suffered from questions about his character and could not recover from a prostitution scandal in 2007 that became a discussion point in the race.

While polling shows Edwards with a significant lead, analysts are cautious about predicting the outcome of the race after this month’s gubernatorial election in Kentucky.

Just how off the polls in the Bluegrass State were too have to have Democrats anxious for the Louisiana results, especially given the shift to security concerns and away from conversation about Vitter’s personal life. After all, this is the same state where, a few twenty-four years ago, voters were faced with a choice between former Governor Edwin Edwards, a man with a reputation for corruption and self-dealing, against David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who had developed a national reputation as a blatantly open racist.

During the last two weeks of the campaign, Vitter’s campaign ads portrayed him in a more sympathetic light with one commercially featuring the senator showing contrition for his scandal and another from he and wife Wendy’s likeable son, Jack, speaking up for his dad.

In the last debate ahead of the Saturday election, Edwards described Vitter as lacking a “moral compass” and called him a “hypocrite”. When the final campaign finance reports are filed, the contest is expected to be the most expensive governor’s race in Louisiana history.