While historically liberal groups, such as those supporting gay rights, pro-choice, unions and the environment, have walked away from U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana’s embattled centrist Democrat is insisting she will be re-elected.
She has turned a deaf ear to polls showing she is an underdog who would lose in a runoff election to her Republican opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy.
"We are going to surprise the nation," she said at a Baton Rouge rally on Monday, the
Los Angeles Times reports. "We are going to most importantly surprise Fox News … We are going to win this election. There is going to be a lot of confusion with the pundits tomorrow saying, 'how did we do it?'
"I will tell you. One: God’s grace. And number two, because we fight together as a team. We are not going to have anybody divide us and separate us."
Even though Landrieu is considered one of the "most endangered Democrats in the Senate," according to the Times, big money groups have opted not to contribute to her campaign.
Major green organizations, including billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and his Super PAC, abandoned her financially, according to
Politico, which notes that Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action had considered targeting Landrieu for supporting the Keystone XL pipeline.
Forbes reports that Steyer spent nearly $74 million on the midterms, more than any other donor who disclosed contributions.
"We have not been involved in that race because Landrieu had not been an ally on many issues, particularly energy ones," League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski told Politico.
An EMILY’s List spokeswoman told the website that it did not endorse Landrieu in the midterms and that it hasn’t supported her since 2003, when Landrieu voted for a bill limiting late-term abortions.
On the campaign trail, Landrieu puts on a unified face, dismissing poll results and touting a message of victory.
"I can tell you all with confidence that we are going to win this election tomorrow," she said Monday, according to the Times. "The people from Washington, and some of them are here ... I say, 'Honey, you don’t know anything.'"
While Landrieu’s camp claims Democrats turned out in droves for early voting, a Louisiana State University political analyst told the Times he disagrees.
"They are talking like big things are happening, but it is hard to see," said Michael Henderson, research director for the Public Policy Research Lab at LSU. "Nothing in the early turnout suggested the Democrats had something exciting going on."
If she senses it, Landrieu isn’t letting on.
"I do not feel like I have been abandoned by anybody in the Democratic Party. I feel like the Democratic Party base is solid behind me," she told reporters on the eve of the election, according to Politico.
"Who else could you have more than Hillary Clinton. … I feel very well supported by the women’s groups, by the environmental groups, the broad party even though I am a centrist Democrat. My base is very, very unified."
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