Mary Landrieu Looks Like She’s Headed For A Big Loss On Saturday

With the fate of the Senate in the 114th Congress already decided, the Runoff Election in Louisiana isn’t getting nearly the attention it otherwise might have gotten had it become a race that could have decided the battle for control of the Senate, and that seems to be sealing the fate of Senator Mary Landrieu:

Louisiana’s Senate runoff is Saturday, but voters have already been casting ballots, and the early returns look ugly for Mary Landrieu.

Early-voting rates are down across the board, in almost every demographic group and almost every parish, compared with the early-voting period before the November all-party primary. But that decline has been most acute among groups the Democrat incumbent needs if she is to pull off a victory against challenger Bill Cassidy.

With Landrieu’s Senate career on the line, women, registered Democrats, and especially African-Americans were more likely than others to drop out of the runoff’s early electorate, according to voting statistics released by the Louisiana secretary of state.

Certainly, early votes are just that—early. The bulk of Louisiana’s ballots will come in on Saturday, and Landrieu’s campaign argues that those results will help. But at this point, she would need an enormous shift to overcome her early-vote deficit.

Just over 221,000 people cast early ballots for the runoff, compared with more than 245,000 who voted early before the November primary. But more Republicans actually turned out early this time, while 18 percent fewer Democrats cast early ballots. Seven percent fewer men have already voted, but women’s early votes have dropped off even more, with a 12 percent decline.

By far the most troubling demographic for Landrieu is the African-American electorate. While women are more likely than men to vote Democratic, and registered party members are also reliable supporters for their own party, race may be the starkest dividing line in Louisiana politics. Landrieu won 94 percent of the black vote in the November primary, according to the exit poll, while she only carried 18 percent of white voters.

That makes the 24 percent drop in early African-American turnout compared with the November primary a blaring warning siren for Louisiana Democrats—especially given that the white early vote has barely fallen—only 3 percent—compared with the primary. Almost the entire drop in early turnout between the two elections is because fewer African-Americans showed up early this time.

Landrieu spokesman Matthew Lehner cautioned against drawing conclusions from early-voting statistics. “Landrieu won in 2002 by driving up support on Election Day in New Orleans, especially in the African-American community.”

Louisiana’s traditional runoff on Saturday rather than Tuesday could help Landrieu boost turnout among key groups, Democrats argue. That would get her to a starting point—an electorate that’s at least 30 percent African-American—from which she could be competitive. That was the turnout rate in November, but the African-American share of the vote actually declined slightly among the full November electorate compared with the primary’s early-voting period. This time, Landrieu’s campaign has to hope the opposite happens.

The real hurdle for the Democrat is that she also needs to boost the share of white voters who support her instead of the Republican candidate in the runoff, a tougher assignment.

There has not been very much polling in Louisiana since Election Day, in no small part because pollsters aren’t really eager to spend money polling a race where the outcome seems obvious and which will only have a minor impact on the ultimately makeup of the Senate, but what there has been has been quite bad for Landrieu. As of right now Congressman Cassidy has a 15.7 point lead in the RealClearPolitics average, which seems quite insurmountable. Assuming it holds up, which seems likely, then Republicans will get their 9th pickup of the 2014 election cycle, and have a 54-46 majority in the new Senate. Perhaps more interestingly, with Landrieu’s defeat, there would only be one Democratic Senator south of Virginia, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.

FILED UNDER: 2014 Election, Congress, US Politics, , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Pinky says:

    I wonder – could early voting be down because the election is being held on a Saturday?

  2. Paul L. says:

    Please tell me more about ‘independent’ Greg Orman. and how he is going to help the Democrats keep the Senate.

    Turns out @SenatorReid’s super PAC did support Greg Orman in KS, funneling $151k into a pro-Orman s-PAC in final days

    Of course if the Republicans win, it is because they gerrymandered the state and suppressed the 2/3 who did not vote and who we should really be listening to.
    Quote of the Day, It’s Just Business, Mary Landrieu. It’s Not Personal edition.

    If anything, the end of the general election may have hurt [Senator Mary] Landrieu. The public is still being flooded with advertisements reminding them of everything that’s on the line, and external Republican forces really have nothing else to occupy their time these days, so they may as well make her miserable..

  3. Pinky says:

    @Paul L.: Senate gerrymandering?

  4. edmondo says:

    @Pinky:

    Pinky, The Obots on here have been arguing since 2010 that the main reason the Democrats lost control of the House was because the GOP gerrymandered their way into the Speakership. Of course the fact that reapportionment didn’t kick in until the 2012 election never enters their minds. The only reason they lost the Senate in 2014 is because +you know, stolen, errrrr gerrymander, errrr whatever the reason (but never the real one, Obama).

  5. Ron Beasley says:

    As a left leaning independent I have one thing to say to Mary Landrieu – don’t let the door hit you in the ass.

  6. MikeSJ says:

    It’s great seeing how well running away from Obamacare worked out for them.

    Here’s a crazy idea, maybe if she had actually defended the Democratic health care polices and explained how it helped her constituents she wouldn’t be getting blown out of the water.

  7. edmondo says:

    maybe if she had actually defended the Democratic health care polices and explained how it helped her constituents she wouldn’t be getting blown out of the water.

    Maybe if she had a president at the head of her party who governed on the same slogans he ran his campaigns on, she might not get blown out of the water either. Obama is as toxic as Bush was 8 years ago.

  8. Anonne says:

    Obama being ‘toxic’ is a media creation. They got what they wanted.

  9. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @Paul L.: Of course if the Republicans win, it is because they gerrymandered the state and suppressed the 2/3 who did not vote and who we should really be listening to.

    “Gerrymandering” is redrawing electoral boundaries to engineer an advantage for one party or candidate. In the Senate, the electoral boundary is the entire state.

    The Republicans redrew Louisiana’s state boundaries when no one was looking? The BASTARDS!

    Go back and restudy your buzzwords and talking points. You’ve gone Full Stupid on this one.

  10. Paul L. says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    Go back and restudy your buzzwords and talking points. You’ve gone Full Stupid on this one.

    Sorry Too much Media Matters, Crooks and Liars and Balloon Juice.

  11. Tyrell says:

    It seems a lot of Democrats have cast her aside .

  12. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @Paul L.: Once again, we’ve proven how hard it is to consistently detect sarcasm on Teh Internets. Or, at least, I have.

    Sorry, you were a little too subtle for me. You actually sounded like some of the usuals around here.

  13. Pinky says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13: Well, you could do what I did, and ask a question rather than go on a rant and call him “stupid”.