Mary Loretta Landrieu (/ˈlændruː/ LAN-drew;[1] born November 23, 1955) is an American entrepreneur and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015.

Landrieu came to national attention in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 after she publicly criticized the federal response to the natural disaster.

[9] On July 25, 1995, The Times-Picayune reported that, as a state representative, Landrieu awarded Tulane University tuition waivers to a former campaign manager.

[10] On January 1, 1987, State Treasurer Mary Evelyn Parker, the longtime Democratic incumbent, resigned with nearly a year and a half left in her fifth term.

The other major candidates in the race were Democratic U.S. Representative Cleo Fields; State Senator Murphy J.

Landrieu was succeeded as state treasurer by her fellow Democrat Ken Duncan, a Baton Rouge attorney and businessman.

In 2004 Landrieu became Louisiana's senior senator upon the retirement of John Breaux, who was replaced by Republican David Vitter.

In 2008, she won a relatively comfortable 52% to 46% re-election to a third term in a race against her challenger, state Treasurer John Neely Kennedy.

She held high-profile hearings on the mistakes of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Subsequent to the 2006 mid-term elections, in which the Democratic Party gained control of both houses of Congress, Landrieu announced (along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine) the formation of the "Common Ground Coalition", a group of moderate senators of both parties, with the goal of finding bipartisan consensus on legislative matters.

[23] On December 15, 2008, it was announced that Landrieu would become chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the 111th Congress when former Chairman John Kerry left to lead the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, previously headed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

[24] In September 2010, Landrieu announced she would hold up OMB director Jacob Lew’s confirmation until the administration lifted or eased a federal freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling.

The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to increase the federal minimum wage for employees to $10.10 per hour over the course of a two-year period.

[38] As a result, prominent conservative figures Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh called her a "high-priced prostitute".

[39] Days later, Sen. Landrieu took to the Senate floor to defend her vote by detailing the timeline of her Medicaid funding request.

[43][44][45] On March 1, 2012, Landrieu voted against a measure that would have repealed a birth control mandate in the health care bill.

[47] In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, Landrieu and fellow Senator David Vitter co-sponsored the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act of 2005 (S.1765),[48] a 440-page aid package worth an estimated $250 billion[49][50] The bill was read twice by Congress, then referred to the United States Senate Committee on Finance.

In 2007, when Democrats took control of the House and Senate, they passed legislation written by Landrieu that authorized FEMA to forgive the loans.

[53][54] Landrieu's national name recognition rose in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as she made multiple TV appearances to discuss the response effort.

[64][65] On January 25, 2010, four Republican conservative activists, including Stan Dai, Joseph Basel, both 24; Robert Flanagan, son of Bill Flanagan, acting U.S. Attorney in Louisiana; and conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe, were arrested by US Marshals and subsequently charged with entering a federal facility under false pretenses for entering Landrieu's New Orleans office under the guise of being telephone repairmen.

O'Keefe admitted to secretly "recording" the interactions with the staff with his cell phone and aiding in the "planning, coordination, and preparation of the operation.

[70] There was a controversy over Landrieu's payment of airline flights with Senate money, some of which may have violated campaign finance law.

Activists dressed as pilots, flight attendants, and ground crew workers greeted her at her campaign appearances.

[91] The NRA-PVF endorsed her opponent, Bill Cassidy, in the 2014 Louisiana Senate race,[92] running a specific attack campaign against Landrieu.

[96] Days later, Sen. Landrieu took to the Senate floor to defend her vote by detailing the timeline of her Medicaid funding request.

[97] Landrieu personally supports same-sex marriage, but defended the state's constitutional ban on the grounds that a majority of Louisianans voted for it.

[98] Landrieu and her husband, attorney Frank Snellings, have two children, Connor and Mary Shannon, and one grandson, Maddox.