The next senator of Louisiana won’t be decided until December, as neither Democrat Mary Landrieu nor Republican Bill Cassidy earned the majority of the vote needed to win the Senate contest.
Neither Landrieu, the veteran Democratic senator, nor Cassidy, the doctor and member of the Republican-led U.S. House, were on pace Tuesday to receive 50 percent of the vote, ABC News and NBC News reported.
The runoff will take place on Dec. 6.
Cassidy appears to have the advantage in a head-to-head matchup with Landrieu, given the conservative electorate in the Bayou State. Polls have repeatedly shown Cassidy with a lead over Landrieu when just the two candidates are on the ballot.
In Tuesday’s election, Tea Party-backed Rob Maness took away votes that Cassidy would likely receive from Republican-leaning voters in December.
The Pelican State is likely to become Ground Zero in the national political debate in the coming weeks, with Republicans and Democrats alike expected to pump millions of dollars into the ongoing Senate race.
Another runoff could take place in Georgia between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Michelle Nunn.
For his part, Cassidy ran a low-profile campaign, preferring to link Landrieu to President Obama, Obama’s dismal approval ratings in Louisiana and unpopular healthcare law. Cassidy even opted out of multiple debates in which Landrieu and Maness sparred with one another.
Energy issues also have played a major role in the fuel-dependent state, with Landrieu touting her chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Cassidy countering that she has been unable to get a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline and other initiatives supported by Louisianans.
