David Vitter and Jay Dardenne claimed victory Tuesday in Louisiana’s two highest-profile midterm elections.
Nationally, Republicans took the House of Representatives but failed to take the Senate, though not all races had been decided by press time.
Vitter, the incumbent Republican Senator, earned 57 percent of the vote to keep his seat, beating Democratic challenger Charlie Melancon’s 38 percent, according to unofficial numbers from the Secretary of State’s office.
Vitter was favored heavily to win the contest, given his double-digit leads in polls and millions more in campaign cash.
The Senate race was fraught with negative ads. Melancon repeatedly pointed to Vitter’s involvement with a D.C.-area prostitution ring, while Vitter accused Melancon of playing stooge to President Barack Obama.
Dardenne, a Republican, won a heated lieutenant governor’s race with 57 percent of the vote, beating Democrat Caroline Fayard’s 43 percent.
“We made a statement about our hope for the future of Louisiana,” Dardenne said. “Fiscal integrity in government means something in this state, no matter how long you’ve been in a particular job.”
Dardenne is the current Secretary of State and a former leader in the State Legislature. He touted his experience as a primary selling point to voters.
Fayard, a first-time candidate who worked at the White House and Goldman Sachs and who was endorsed by former president Bill Clinton, sold herself as a “new face” on the state’s political scene.
The special election race for lieutenant governor fills the position vacated by Mitch Landrieu, who left the post to become mayor of New Orleans. Dardenne will face re-election next year.
Landrieu endorsed Fayard in the race.
Louisianians also selected six delegates to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Baton Rouge-area Rep. Bill Cassidy swept into an easy victory over engineer Merritt McDonald, earning 66 percent of the vote.
In New Orleans, Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao will give up his seat to Obama-endorsed Democratic challenger Cedric Richmond. Richmond gained 65 percent of the vote to Cao’s 33.
Cao was expected to lose the seat, as the district is reliably Democratic.
In 2008, Cao beat incumbent William Jefferson, who was then facing highly publicized corruption charges.
Voters statewide defeated two of the 10 proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot.
 
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Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]