David Vitter

David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 2005 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Vitter served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. Vitter was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. 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 2007, Vitter admitted to and apologized for past involvement with prostitution as a client of a Washington, D.C. escort service. Despite Vitter's disclosure, he was re-elected to the Senate in 2010; however, the disclosure is believed to have played a part in his loss of the 2015 gubernatorial election. Vitter ran for governor to succeed the term-limited Bobby Jindal in the 2015 gubernatorial election, losing the general election to Democrat John Bel Edwards. While conceding defeat to Edwards, Vitter announced that he would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2016 and would retire from office at the completion of his term. Following the conclusion of his second Senate term, Vitter became a lobbyist.