Bobby Jindal won outright in the state's open primary election for governor in October 2007, finishing atop the slate of candidates with 54 percent of the vote and avoiding the need for a November runoff election.

This was Jindal's second campaign for governor. He lost to Democrat Kathleen Blanco in the 2003 governor's race, Jindal's first ever bid for elected office.

Jindal was elected to Congress in 2004, representing Louisiana's 1st Congressional District, taking over an open seat in the suburban New Orleans, majority Republican district. He was re-elected to his U.S. House seat overwhelmingly, with 88 percent of the vote.

(Last updated by Doug Simpson on April 23, 2009.)

Mary Landrieu entered the 1996 U.S. Senate race still stinging from 1995's loss in the primary election for the Louisiana governor.

She was elected to the U.S. Senate that year by little more than 50 percent, defeating Republican Woody Jenkins.

In her 2002 bid for re-election, Landrieu easily led a field of nine in the state's open primary. Landrieu got 46 percent of the vote in the primary and faced Republican challenger Suzanne Haik Terrell in a runoff. Landrieu defeated Terrell with 52 percent of the vote, despite Terrell's aggressive backing by President George W. Bush and other senior Republicans.

In 2008, Landrieu held onto her seat for a third term, avoiding a runoff by defeating Republican John Kennedy with 52 percent of the vote, even though Kennedy had fundraising help from President Bush and the national GOP and the support of popular Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Landrieu was first elected Louisiana state treasurer in 1987 when she led the primary field of four with 43 percent of the vote and her run-off opponent, Kevin Reilly, dropped out. She was unopposed for re-election to the position in 1991.

(Last updated by Melinda Deslatte on March 27, 2009.)

David Vitter was elected to the U.S. Senate in Louisiana's 2004 open primary, defeating four major party opponents with 51 percent of the vote.

Vitter won the Louisiana House seat that former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke gave up in 1991 in an unsuccessful bid for governor, polling 68 percent of the vote against two opponents. Vitter won a second term in 1995 without opposition.

After House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston publicly announced in late 1998 that he had had extramarital affairs and would resign early in 1999, Vitter entered a crowded field to fill the remaining months of Livingston's term.

In the open primary, former Republican Gov. Dave Treen picked up 25 percent of the vote, followed by Vitter, with 22 percent.

In the runoff, which was marked by a light turnout and Treen's absence from campaigning for several days to help find his missing grandson, who got lost on a hiking trip in Oregon, Vitter won 51 percent of the vote.

A few months later, Vitter won his first full two-year term, handily winning in the primary against five political unknowns.

He was re-elected to his third term in 2002 with 81 percent of the vote.

(Last updated by Kevin McGill on Sept. 9, 2009.)