Mary Landrieu Loses Louisiana Senate Seat, Republicans Add One More For 2015

Mary Landrieu found herself without a job on Saturday night after losing in the Louisiana runoff for her Senate seat to Republican Bill Cassidy.

Landrieu was a heavy underdog going into the election, and in that regard, she did not disappoint as officials were able to declare Cassidy the winner based on exit polling alone. He had a double-digit lead over the embattled Democrat heading into Saturday night, and it’s presumed that things stayed that way.

Landrieu drew a lot of flak from Louisiana voters, who were outraged over her support of Obamacare (aka Affordable Care Act). Louisiana has been growing increasingly conservative in recent years, so when the senator cast one of the deciding votes on the ACA, she sealed her fate, analysts believe.

The healthcare law has been considered President Obama’s signature domestic achievement, though Mary Landrieu tried using that to her advantage in a recent interview with a tea party radio host.

Landrieu noted that President Obama had wanted a single-payer system, or fully socialized medicine, and she said no to that and that it was “wrong for the people of Louisiana.”

It was only after he made adjustments to that original desire and came up with the ACA that she felt comfortable enough to vote for it, though even there, she admitted that it was a flawed law, but that “it was better than nothing.”

Opponents like Cassidy repeatedly pointed out that Landrieu had voted with the President 97 percent of the time, and ultimately the tactic worked as Fox News announced her defeat before 9 pm Saturday night.

Huffington Post adds that the state of Louisiana had not been represented by two Republican Senators since 1876 prior to the runoff, and that with Landrieu’s loss, it now brings the total number of seats to 54 for the Republicans out of 100, nearing them closer to the supermajority they already have in the House of Representatives.

That means Republicans will have to do a little less convincing to get the conservative Democrat votes needed to override any presidential vetoes when they take full power in 2015, though it’s still unlikely that will happen.

Right to the end, Landrieu insisted that her problems in the Louisiana runoff — Democrats pulling $2 million in funding, bad polling — had nothing to do with her support of the Affordable Care Act. But what do you think, readers?

Did Mary Landrieu vote herself out of office when she voted for Obamacare? Sound off in the comments section.