2004 LA-07 election

2008 LA-02 election

This meant any runoffs in said primaries would be held on election day (Nov. 4th) before a general election in December. As such, Jefferson, who had faced a primary and was forced into a runoff, found himself unable to ride the coattails of Barack Obama's victory in the district. Jefferson was further hurt by the fact Obama provided extensive support to Paul Carmouche (D) in the 4th district (which also held an election in December), but was essentially absent in the 2nd, with the Times-Picayune asserting "the president-elect's silence speaks volumes,". As a result, majority-African American precincts saw extremely low turnout, with most of the precincts Jefferson won having only 10% turnout, if that. In contrast, Cao benefited from a surge in turnout amongst anti-Jefferson voters, most of whom were white*. As Louisiana political writer John Maginnis told NPR "there was such a low turnout for this election...except for people who wanted to get rid of Bill Jefferson. There was a very spirited turnout, mostly in predominantly white precincts,". Indeed, analysis of the results revealed twice as high turnout in majority-white areas compared to majority-African American areas. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Cao was also, to quote Maginnis again, "an attractive candidate", being a refugee from North Vietnam and describing himself as "moderate" Republican. 

Thus, when all the votes were tallied, Jefferson saw an unceremonious end to his political career as Cao pulled off a stunning upset, becoming the first Republican to win the seat in over 100 years and the first ever Vietnamese-American Congressman. Following the election, Jefferson was convicted of 11 counts in August 2009, being sentenced to 13 years in prison. Meanwhile, Cao was notable for being the only Republican to vote 'yes' on the first draft of the Affordable Care Act, although he voted against the final version, and for telling a BP America President Lamar McKay "during the Samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit harakiri [sic],"  during a congressional hearing about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Cao ran for re-election in 2010, but couldn't overcome the overwhelming partisan lean of the district with Jefferson not running, as he lost in a landslide to Cedric Richmond (D) even amidst a red wave. As such, this remains (and likely will remain for a while) the last time a Republican was elected to LA-02, as well as the last time the district was decided by single digits.

*Like most of the Deep South, Louisiana is very racially polarized, with white voters tending to overwhelmingly supporting Republicans and African American voters tending to overwhelmingly supporting Democrats. While racial polarization was not as extreme back then, it was still an important, often decisive, factor. As such, while I was unable to find exit polls to definitively state this, it is not a stretch to assert that, in general, white voters voted Republican and black voters Democratic in this election. 

2011 sd-12 election

2016 LA-04 election

2020 public service commision district 5 election