Louisiana was won by Republican nominee John McCain by an 18.6% margin of victory.

In doing so, Obama became the first winning Democratic presidential nominee to lose Louisiana since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

In this election, Louisiana voted 25.9% to the right of the nation at-large, or a 13.85 percent bigger differential than in 2004.

[18] Polling in Louisiana gave a strong lead to McCain, sometimes as high as 19%,[19] and Barack Obama did not seriously contest the state.

Louisiana was also one of only two states to list Ron Paul on their official ballot (the other being Montana which gave the largest percentage to any third-party candidate nationwide).

Senator Mary Landrieu avoided the Republican trend in the state and held onto her U.S. Senate seat, taking in 52.11% of the vote to State Treasurer John N. Kennedy, a Democrat who switched parties to run against Landrieu.

Republicans picked up two U.S. House seats in Louisiana (LA-02 and LA-06 with Joseph Cao and Bill Cassidy, respectively).

In a terrible year for the Republican Party nationwide, Louisiana provided the GOP with a ray of hope and optimism.