BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Democrat Troy Carter won Saturday's special election for Louisiana's vacant U.S. House seat, defeating his state Senate colleague and ending an acrimonious, intraparty clash that divided politicians across New Orleans.
Carter easily defeated Karen Carter Peterson in the race for Louisiana's only Democrat-held seat in Congress, in a race seen as handing a victory to the more moderate side of the party after Peterson planted herself firmly in the progressive camp. Carter dismissed those comparisons, noting he also had progressive support.
The pair of state senators from New Orleans, who both made previous failed bids for the congressional seat, had only modest policy differences to distinguish them, and the race centered mainly on personality. Carter had the backing, however, of the seat's predecessor, Cedric Richmond.
The 2nd District seat -- representing a majority-Black district centered in New Orleans and extending up the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge -- was open because Richmond left the position shortly after he won last year's election to work as a special adviser to President Joe Biden.
"I will wake up every day with you on my mind, on my heart, and I will work for you tirelessly," Carter, a former New Orleans City Council member, pledged to his supporters.
He said he would focus on economic recovery from COVID-19, overhauling criminal sentencing laws, protecting LGBTQ rights and fighting for clean air in parts of the 10-parish district with higher levels of pollution.