On Saturday, Democrat John Bel Edwards won a runoff election and was elected governor of Louisiana. Why is this newsworthy? Because he is the first Democrat elected to a statewide office there since 2008. His opponent was David Vitter, who has been plagued by scandals.
Why wasn’t current governor Bobby Jindal in the race? Because he was term limited, but might have lost even if he could have run. Despite running for president, when he dropped out of the presidential race last Wednesday his approval rating in his own state had dropped to 20%. Clearly, people there were ready for a change.
The other good news is that the new governor has pledged to expand Medicaid in his state under Obamacare, which could make Louisiana the first state in the deep south to do so. That will provide health insurance to around 225,000 people in the state, which is one of the poorest in the nation.
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