"This victory happened because people in Louisiana voted for a government which serves us but does not tell us what to do. Thank you all," said Cassidy to supporters after the result was announced, the New York Times reports.
Cassidy won by 56% to Landrieu’s 44% in a runoff election held after the November primaries, in which a third candidate, Rob Maness, split the Republican vote. Landrieu, seeking a fourth term in office, was widely expected to lose the runoff after Maness subsequently threw his weight behind Cassidy.
"It’s been nothing but a joy to serve this state for over 34 years," Fox News reported Landrieu said after the defeat, which leaves the Democrats without any Senate representation in America’s Deep South, region they previously dominated. Landrieu has sought to distance herself from President Obama during the campaign, whose unpopularity was used against her by Cassidy. The Washington Post reported that at the time of the November midterms, nearly six in ten voters polled said they were "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the President.
The defeat means that the Republicans have made a "clean sweep" in the South, according to CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes. "It's not just that Senate Democrats have been wiped out in the South," she explained, but "that there are no longer any Democratic governors. There are no longer any Democratically-controlled state legislatures," signalling the party’s decline in the region.
CBS reports that a number of factors added to the demise of the Democrats, including the domination within the party of liberal politicians from the Northeast and Pacific coast of the country who have little in common with white southerners. The AP noted on Saturday that House delegations from the South are divided along racial lines, with white Republicans representing white majority districts, and black or Hispanic Democrats serving majority non-white districts.
