943,014 542,150 51.03% 29.34% Start date November 2, 2004 | 542,150 275,821 29.34% 14.92% | |
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Winner David Vitter | ||
The 2004 United States Senate election in Louisiana was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Breaux decided to retire. Republican U.S. Representative David Vitter won the jungle primary with 51% of the vote and avoided a runoff.
Contents
Democratic Party
Republican Party
Campaign
Breaux endorsed Chris John prior to the jungle primary.
During the campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of having had a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans. Vitter responded that the allegation was "absolutely and completely untrue" and that it was "just crass Louisiana politics." The allegation later turned out to be true.
Vitter won the Louisiana jungle primary with 51% of the vote, avoiding the need for a runoff. John received 29.2% of the vote and Kennedy (no relation to the Massachusetts Kennedys), took 14.9%.
Vitter won at least a plurality in 56 of Louisiana's 64 parishes. John carried nine parishes, all but two of which (Iberville and Orleans) are part of the House district he represented.
Kennedy changed parties and ran as Republican in 2008 against Louisiana's senior Senator, Democrat Mary Landrieu. Landrieu was re-elected.
Vitter was the first Republican in Louisiana to be popularly elected as a U.S. Senator. The previous Republican Senator, William Pitt Kellogg, was chosen by the state legislature in 1876, in accordance with the process used before the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution went into effect in 1914.
Aftermath
The race's second losing Democratic candidate John Neely Kennedy was later elected to this seat after 12 years in 2016 as a Republican.