Louisiana voters have the rare chance to choose a new U.S. senator on Tuesday, but so far the atmosphere surrounding the races has been subdued, one of the state’s leading political scientists tells The USA Today Network of Louisiana.
“It’s probably one of the quietest Senate races I’ve ever seen,” says Albert Samuels, dean of Southern University’s Nelson Mandela College of Government and Social Sciences.
Other than the sideshow offered by Republican David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, Louisiana’s race to replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter has been overshadowed by a presidential race featuring a pair of polarizing nominees in Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
“It does seem the presidential race has sucked a lot of the air out of the room,” Samuels says. “And that’s kind of bizarre since an open U.S. Senate seat doesn’t come open that often.”
A record 24 candidates qualified for the race, with virtually all polls whittling the top contenders to Republican U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany of Lafayette and John Fleming of Minden, Republican state Treasurer John Kennedy, Democratic Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell of Elm Grove, and attorney and Democrat Caroline Fayard. Duke is a second-tier candidate with virtually no chance of making the runoff.
“The field is strong, but Louisiana politics are generally personality driven,” Samuels says. “We have highly qualified candidates at the top, but they perhaps aren’t as charismatic or polarizing as some have been in the past.”
