"The eyes of the country are on Louisiana," Jindal said.
Early voting began Saturday in Louisiana as the state prepares for the December 6 runoff election to decide who will take the last Senate seat in the 2014 midterms. At a campaign event right outside of New Orleans, a few hundred supporters showed up for Cassidy to cheer him on to victory in the last stretch.
Col. Rob Maness, the former GOP candidate for Senate who dropped out after the Nov. 4 election, took the stage first, ensuring the crowd he was now fully behind Cassidy. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) offered remarks as well, taking a few jabs at Landrieu for failing to convince her Democratic colleagues to get on board and pass the Keystone XL pipeline bill.
Then, Gov. Jindal arrived. Perhaps noticing the sea of orange NRA hats, Jindal attacked Landrieu's gun rights record and President Obama's insulting 'guns and religion' hot mic comment from 2008.
"As a lifelong member of the NRA, I'm proud that we've got plenty of both guns and religion! I guess I wasn't smart enough to know I was supposed to be insulted by that," Jindal said. "Mary Landrieu has voted against our Second Amendment rights, she has voted to confirm a radical, anti-gun justice of the Supreme Court, she has a 'D' rating from the NRA. Does Mary Landrieu represent our values?"
To emphasize this point, Jindal reminded the crowd about that time their senator called them a bunch of bigots.
"She has the gall to suggest we must be 'racist' to disagree with this president's policies."
The governor then shifted his attention to Cassidy, confident that the latter would soon be working more closely with him.
"He's a great doctor, a great legislator, a great congressman and he's going to be a great United States Senator."
Jindal then started a trend of the night by stressing the importance of early voting. The governor warned attendees not to become complacent even though polls show Cassidy with a double digit lead.
"You don't win an election with two weeks left to go. We win this election when the last vote is counted...Let's make this a landslide so that come December 6, we can say, 'former Senator Mary Landrieu!'"
Bill Cassidy was greeted with a rock star welcome to the party being held in his honor. He didn't let the fanfare distract him though and quickly got to business. He spent a good chunk of his remarks contrasting his own agenda with that of Landrieu's. Like Jindal, he too mentioned Landrieu's infamous 'D' rating from the NRA, touting his own impressive 'A' rating. What's more, while the Democrat has a zero percent record from the Right to Life, Cassidy said he has a 100 percent rating. I explained just how misleading Landrieu has been on pro-life issues in an earlier piece. Finally, while Landrieu voted for Obamacare and would do so again, 'tomorrow,' Cassidy voted to repeal and replace the job killing bill over 50 times.
Perhaps the best part of his speech is when he stopped to recognize a very special person:
"I want to pause and give thanks to the person who every week has done something for our campaign, who without this person, we would not be in the position we are, who my gosh has worked overtime to make this possible. So will you join me in thanking the person who's made our victory secure: President Barack Obama."
When the roar of laughter died down, Cassidy echoed Jindal's sentiments about early voting. Convincing even two people a day to go to the polls, he said, would be an immense help for their campaign, so they can focus more completely on voters who have yet to make up their mind.
Cassidy himself introduced the final speaker, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was given the most time onstage. As a son of poor immigrants, Rubio offered an energetic, moving speech insisting that the Louisiana Senate race wasn't just about politics, it was about preserving the American Dream.
"This isn't just a choice between Mary Landrieu and Bill Cassidy," he said. "It's a choice between whether this generation is willing to do what it needs to do to share that dream."
"The American Dream has never been about being rich. The American Dream was about achieving happiness and leaving your family better off than yourself."
Rubio said it's 'insulting' to hear Democrats like Harry Reid say they're fighting for the middle class, especially when they've pushed through such harmful legislation.
That's where Bill Cassidy comes in, he said.
"I know of no one who's going to be a more forceful voice on repealing and replacing Obamacare, than your next Senator Bill Cassidy. He understands health care because he's a health care practitioner, because he knows patients, because he's dealt with patients. He understands that they way to bring affordable health coverage to people is not to put the government in charge, it's to put you in charge of health care."
He listed what needs to be done to get the country back on the right track: tax reform, regulatory reform, repealing Obamacare, getting our debt under control.
"On issue after issue of what it will take to make America globally competitive again, she's on the wrong side and Bill Cassidy is on the right side."
Yes, turnout is critical, Rubio said, to prevent ending up in a textbooks as 'an election people thought we had won and ended up not winning.' He also told the audience to 'not let your guard down about what the other side is doing to hold on to power.' Landrieu managed to win the last two runoff elections by successfully turning out her base.
We'll see if Landrieu can somehow pull it off again, or if Cassidy's landslide lead will hold strong.
I'll leave you with Rubio's classy description of Cassidy, which should be every Congress member's raison d'etre.
"He's someone who wants to be in office not to be someone, but to do something."
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