This post has been updated.
Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is convinced that if the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana led to a runoff between himself and incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (R-LA), the entire global community will watch the race to see which party will control the Senate.
During a Mandeville, La. town hall in April, Cassidy said that it’s “likely” that after election day in November there will be 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats elected to the Senate.
“Now if [Landrieu] is reelected there will be 50 and 50 and under our constitution the Vice President Joe Biden will cast the deciding vote,” Cassidy said, according to video published by the Huffington Post. “If I’m elected there will be 51 Republicans and the people of Louisiana have cast the deciding vote. For 30 days the entire world will be looking at Louisiana and that sounds a little bit like rhetoric but think about it.”
Cassidy continued to explain which world leaders would be waiting for the election results in Louisiana.
“You don’t think Vladimir Putin is going to look to see if the Senate remains Democrat which is to say a rubber stamp for Barack Obama or if there is a Republican senate which would insist upon a strong military? The Chinese, the Iranians, the Israelis, they’re all going to be watching Louisiana for those 30 days,” he said.
According to Cassidy, the race will go down in history.
“I like to think of the historian,” he said. “She will be writing about this race 100 years from now and she will write about it and she will say in 2014 the country made the decision either to keep going to the left because Louisiana reelected Mary Landrieu 30 days after everyone else was elected, or she will write in 2014 the country made the decision to veer back to the right because Louisiana elected Bill Cassidy.”
In Louisiana, all candidates run in an open primary no matter their party. An early April poll found that Landrieu was leading the primary field, but she fell short of the percentage needed to avoid a runoff race in December.
Landrieu is one of a few Senate Democrats running for re-election in a red state who are fighting an uphill battle to keep their seats.
She is also on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s radar, as one of nine U.S. officials sanctioned by the Russian government. Landrieu said being sanctioned was a “badge of honor.”
