John Bel Edwards wins governor's race

State Rep. John Bel Edwards (D) was elected the governor of Louisiana in a runoff election on Saturday, defeating U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R).
Edwards won 56 percent of the vote, with 100 percent of precincts reporting. “I will not let you down,” he said. “This election shows us that the people of Louisiana in a time of deep cynicism about our politics and also our future, have chosen hope over scorn... and over a distrust of others.”
Edwards had 646,860 votes while Vitter had 505,929 votes.
Vitter won Vermilion Parish. He had 7,594 votes while Edwards had 5,116 votes.
Vitter announced that he will not seek re-election in 2016, and joked that he had “reached my personal term limit” during his concession speech.
Edwards, currently the minority leader in the Louisiana House of Representatives, is a conservative Democrat who opposes abortion and supports gun rights.
Vitter was once considered a clear favorite to win the governorship, but had a difficult race, with Republican challengers repeatedly bringing up the prostitution scandal that surfaced in 2007. In addition, a private investigator working for Vitter’s campaign was arrested in October after allegedly recording a conversation between a local sheriff and his associates in a cafe.
Edwards led Vitter in polls approaching Saturday’s runoff, according to HuffPost Pollster, which aggregates publicly available polling data.
In the Oct. 24 election, Edwards garnered 40 percent of the vote to Vitter’s 23 percent. However, the race went to a runoff since neither candidate earned a majority.
During the campaign, both Edwards and Vitter criticized Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who is suffering from dismal approval ratings. Jindal suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday.
Edwards will be inaugurated on Jan. 11, 2016.
Other state results:
“Billy Nungesser (R.) won the Lt. Governor’s race with 628,864 votes over Kip Holden (D) with 506,578 votes.
Jeff Landry won the attorney general’s race with 610,433 votes over Buddy Caldwell with 473,869 votes.