Newest GOP U.S. Senator: Vicotory an “Exclamation Mark”

Written by Bernie Becker

U.S. Senator-elect Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said Sunday that his election was the “exclamation mark” on this year’s Republican successes.

Cassidy, who unseated U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) in a runoff election on Saturday, said the GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate illustrated how dissatisfied voters were with President Barack Obama, especially in the Deep South.

“If there’s one party for the working people right now, it’s the Republican Party,” Cassidy said on “Fox News Sunday,” pointing to GOP efforts to expand drilling of natural resources and Democrats’ attempts to limit emissions.

“We are a working-family region,” Cassidy added.

Cassidy, himself a doctor, said rolling back Obama’s healthcare law would be one of his top priorities in the Senate.

But he appeared to put mostly hope that the Supreme Court, which will hear a case concerning ObamaCare subsidies, would do most of the work in eliminating the law.

He added that he was inclined to support a GOP plan to fund most of the government through September, with shorter-term funding for the agency in charge of immigration enforcement. And he dodged a question about whether he would be more aligned with the incoming U.S. Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY.), or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), saying his first concern was Louisiana.

“If it sounds like campaign rhetoric, it is from the heart,” Cassidy said.

This article was originally posted at TheHill.com blog.