--- title: Mary Landrieu Commits to Gulf Coast Restoration in Farewell Speech description: Departing Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu promised to spend her retirement from politics working to repair the Gulf Coast. canonical: https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T20:54:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:47:26.665Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Last Southern Democratic Senator Gave Her Farewell Speech og:description: Departing Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu promised to spend her retirement from politics working to repair the Gulf Coast. og:url: https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a4d1c36916e9c87/69876d4255a859732ea8493d/mary-landrieu-lousiana-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Democratic Senator Landrieu reacts while delivering a concession speech after the results of the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana during a runoff in New Orleans og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Last Southern Democratic Senator Gave Her Farewell Speech twitter:description: Departing Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu promised to spend her retirement from politics working to repair the Gulf Coast. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a4d1c36916e9c87/69876d4255a859732ea8493d/mary-landrieu-lousiana-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Last Southern Democratic Senator Gave Her Farewell Speech  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 11, 2014 8:54 PM UTC  Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu reacts while delivering a concession speech after the results of the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana during a runoff in New Orleans on Dec. 6, 2014. Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu reacts while delivering a concession speech after the results of the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana during a runoff in New Orleans on Dec. 6, 2014.Jonathan Bachman—Reuters  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 11, 2014 8:54 PM UTC Departing Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu promised to spend her retirement from politics working to repair the environmentally degraded Gulf Coast Thursday in an emotional farewell speech delivered from the Senate floor. “It is something worth fighting for,” she said. “We would not be a country without the Mississippi Delta.” In a runoff election December 6, Landrieu lost decisively to Republican Bill Cassidy, making the last statewide elected Democrat in the Deep South. The loss of Landrieu’s seat completes a political realignment in the once solidly Democratic South that began decades ago. Landrieu, who is from New Orleans, said she will focus her work out of office on issues impacting children and the environment, including coastal restoration, a hot button issue in Louisiana, where wetlands are [disappearing](http://projects.propublica.org/louisiana/) at an alarming rate. “The city is going to stay there and the region is going to stay there,” she said. Landrieu thanked a litany of staffers and lawmakers but had less charitable parting words for one elected official. “President Bush was not that forward-leaning,” she said of Bush’s response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans. “I’ll just leave it at that. There will be a lot more in my book. During her 18 years in the Senate, Landrieu was a dependable ally of the oil and gas industry and an unabashed pork-barrel dealmaker who touted her success at diverting federal funds to her state—she famously traded her key vote in favor of Obamacare in exchange for millions of dollars in extra federal support for Medicaid in Louisiana. Landrieu told Politico it is “highly, highly unlikely” she will [run](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/mary-landrieu-wont-likely-run-again-113472.html) for office again. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/"},"headline":"The Last Southern Democratic Senator Gave Her Farewell Speech","datePublished":"2014-12-11T20:54:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:47:26.665Z","description":"The loss of her Senate seat completes a political realignment that began decades ago","url":"https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/","keywords":["democrats","Senate","politics","South","2014 Election","Election 2014"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a4d1c36916e9c87/69876d4255a859732ea8493d/mary-landrieu-lousiana-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a4d1c36916e9c87/69876d4255a859732ea8493d/mary-landrieu-lousiana-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Senator Landrieu reacts while delivering a concession speech after the results of the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana during a runoff in New Orleans","caption":"Democratic Senator Landrieu reacts while delivering a concession speech after the results of the U.S. Senate race in Louisiana during a runoff in New Orleans","creditText":"Jonathan Bachman—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/democrats/","name":"democrats"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3630573/landrieu-farewell-speech/","name":"The Last Southern Democratic Senator Gave Her Farewell Speech"}}]}] ```