House of Representatives from to Vitter was first elected to the U. Senate in He was the first Republican to represent Louisiana in the Senate since the Reconstruction Era , and the first ever Republican to be popularly elected. In , Vitter admitted to and apologized for past involvement with prostitution as part of a Washington, D. In , Vitter won a second Senate term by defeating Democratic U. Vitter unsuccessfully ran for governor to succeed the term-limited Bobby Jindal in the gubernatorial election.
He lost the general election to Democrat John Bel Edwards. While conceding defeat to Edwards, Vitter announced that he would not seek reelection to his Senate seat in and would retire from office at the completion of his term. Following the conclusion of his second Senate term, Vitter became a lobbyist. Raymond and Albert Leopold Vitter. He was a practicing lawyer, [ 5 ] [ 6 ] and adjunct law professor at Tulane and Loyola University New Orleans. Vitter and his wife Wendy , a former prosecutor, [ 7 ] [ 8 ] have four children.
Vitter's brother Jeffrey is a computer scientist who has served as chancellor of the University of Mississippi from January to January Vitter was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from to Vitter has argued for ethics reform and term limits since he was in the Louisiana Legislature in the early s.
Vitter opposed gambling during his tenure in the Louisiana House. Vitter won a special election to Louisiana's 1st congressional district in , succeeding Republican U. Representative Bob Livingston , who resigned after disclosure that he had committed adultery. Treen finished first with 36, votes 25 percent.
Vitter was second, with 31, 22 percent , and white nationalist David Duke finished third with 28, votes 19 percent. Monica L. Monica, a Republican ophthalmologist , had 16 percent; State Representative Bill Strain , a conservative Democrat , finished fifth with 11 percent; and Rob Couhig , a Republican lawyer and the owner of New Orleans's minor league baseball team, garnered 6 percent. In and , Vitter was re-elected with more than 80 percent of the vote in what had become a safe Republican district.
