Joseph Cao

Joseph Cao

Republican Party

Prior offices

U.S. House Louisiana District 2

Successor: Cedric Richmond

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Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Baylor University

Graduate

Fordham University

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

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Joseph Cao (Republican Party) was a member of the U.S. House, representing Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District. He assumed office on January 3, 2009. He left office on January 3, 2011.

Cao (Republican Party) ran for election for an at-large seat of the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. He lost in the primary on November 8, 2022.

Cao was a 2016 Republican candidate who sought election to the U.S. Senate from Louisiana.

Cao was a Republican candidate for Louisiana Attorney General in the 2011 Louisiana statewide elections. He was slotted to face incumbent Buddy Caldwell, but withdrew from the race on September 20, 2011.

Biography

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Cao is a native of Vietnam, the son of an officer in the U.S.-supported South Vietnamese Army. After the fall of Saigon to communist North Vietnam in 1975, Cao's father was imprisoned and his mother was left to raise the couple's seven children. Cao and two of his siblings fled the country for the U.S. He ultimately earned a B.S. in physics from Baylor University, and an M.A. in philosophy from Fordham University in 1995. For several years after he graduated from college, he was also a member of the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order.

Cao taught philosophy and ethics at Loyola University in New Orleans for a year after earning his master's, then worked a year as a parochial school teacher in Virginia. Cao studied law at the Loyola School of Law from 1997 to 2000; after earning his J.D., he became an associate at the Waltzer Law Firm. After leaving Waltzer, he worked as in-house counsel for Boat People SOS, an organization "seeking to aid the social and cultural assimilation for poor immigrants." He opened a private practice, which he continues to operate, in 2002. Cao has also served on the Board of Elections for Orleans Parish, the Republican Parish Executive Committee and the Louisiana State Republican Executive Committee.

He was elected as a U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd Congressional District in 2008, becoming the first Vietnamese-American ever elected to Congress and the first Republican to represent his district since 1891. He served one term, losing to Democratic State Rep. Cedric Richmond.

Elections

2022

See also: Louisiana intermediate appellate court elections, 2022

Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal At large

Karen K. Herman won election outright against Joseph Cao and Marie Williams in the primary for Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal At large on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Karen K. Herman (D)	57.7	72,317
		Joseph Cao (R)	22.0	27,620
		Marie Williams (D)	20.3	25,445

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 125,382
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Paul N. Sens (D)

2016

See also: United States Senate election in Louisiana, 2016

Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated Louisiana's U.S. Senate race as safely Republican. The seat was open following incumbent David Vitter's decision to retire. A total of 24 candidates filed to run and competed in the primary election on November 8, 2016. John Kennedy (R) and Foster Campbell (D) took the top two spots in the election, advancing to the general election on December 10, 2016. Kennedy subsequently defeated Campbell in the general election.

U.S. Senate, Louisiana General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Kennedy	60.7%	536,191
	Democratic	Foster Campbell	39.3%	347,816
Total Votes				884,007
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State

U.S. Senate, Louisiana Primary Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	John Kennedy	25%	482,591
	Democratic	Foster Campbell	17.5%	337,833
	Republican	Charles Boustany	15.4%	298,008
	Democratic	Caroline Fayard	12.5%	240,917
	Republican	John Fleming	10.6%	204,026
	Republican	Rob Maness	4.7%	90,856
	Republican	David Duke	3%	58,606
	Democratic	Derrick Edwards	2.7%	51,774
	Democratic	Gary Landrieu	2.4%	45,587
	Republican	Donald Crawford	1.3%	25,523
	Republican	Joseph Cao	1.1%	21,019
	Independent	Beryl Billiot	1%	19,352
	Libertarian	Thomas Clements	0.6%	11,370
	Independent	Troy Hebert	0.5%	9,503
	Democratic	Josh Pellerin	0.4%	7,395
	Democratic	Peter Williams	0.4%	6,855
	Democratic	Vinny Mendoza	0.3%	4,927
	Independent	Kaitlin Marone	0.2%	4,108
	Libertarian	Le Roy Gillam	0.2%	4,067
	Republican	Charles Marsala	0.2%	3,684
	Independent	Arden Wells	0.1%	1,483
	Independent	Bob Lang	0.1%	1,424
	Independent	Gregory Taylor	0.1%	1,151
Total Votes				1,932,059
Source: Louisiana Secretary of State

2011

See also: Louisiana attorney general election, 2011

Cao announced in April 2011 that he would run for Attorney General of Louisiana, setting up a challenge with one-term Republican incumbent Buddy Caldwell in the October 22 primary. He announced he was pulling out of the race on September 19, 2011, after his campaign struggled to build financial momentum. Cao was also dogged by persistent questions regarding his conservative credentials following his initial support as a congressman for Democratic President Barack Obama's 2009 health care reform bill.

2010

Cao lost his 2010 run for re-election as U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 2nd District, falling to Democrat Cedric Richmond in the general election.

Louisiana, 2nd Congressional District -- 2010 General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Cedric Richmond	64.59
	Republican Party	Joseph Cao	33.47
Total Votes			129,604

2008

Cao first won election as U.S. representative for Louisiana's 2nd District in 2008, when he narrowly defeated Democrat William J. Jefferson.

Louisiana, 2nd Congressional District -- 2010 General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	William J. Jefferson	46.83
	Republican Party	a Joseph Cao	49.54
Total Votes			66,882

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Joseph Cao did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

See also

2022 Elections

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Government

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Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal At large

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