John Bel Edwards, David Vitter advance to runoff in governor's race

[Draggingtree]

The Times-Picayune: John Bel Edwards, David Vitter advance to runoff in governor's race

By Julia O'Donoghue, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

on October 25, 2015 at 12:43 AM, updated October 25, 2015 at 8:08 AM

Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards and Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter will continue their heated battle for governor in a Nov. 21 runoff after finishing 1-2 in the primary election Saturday.

 

The Edwards-Vitter pairing was no surprise. Edwards was all but guaranteed 30 percent of the vote as the only major Democrat running; he ended up with 40 percent. Vitter was the candidate of choice for conservative Republicans, but was a distant second with 23 percent.

 

In the end, the two other Republicans in the race -- Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne -- couldn't piece together coalitions big enough to overcome Vitter's conservative appeal. Vitter may be popular with his "super Republican" base, but polling shows he has "high negatives" among other groups of voters