Caroline Fayard

On October 2, in a field of eight candidates, Fayard (24 percent) ran ahead of Republican Sammy Kershaw (19 percent) for second place behind Dardenne (28 percent). Dardenne and Fayard then met in the November 2 general election. Fayard received 43% of the vote (540,000 votes) in the November 2nd runoff. With such a strong showing in her first statewide race, she was considered a rising star among Democratic politicians. Kershaw and Saint Tammany Parish president Kevin Davis (an eliminated Republican candidate who drew 8 percent of the vote) endorsed fellow Republican Dardenne while Fayard gained the endorsement of eliminated candidate and fellow Democratic State Senator Butch Gautreaux (4 percent).

Fayard grew up in Denham Springs. She was the valedictorian of the Class of 1996 in nearby Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge. She participated in Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. She received a baccalaureate degree from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 2000 and a juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School at Ann Arbor in 2005. She is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and New York State. She served as a congressional page and interned in the White House under President Bill Clinton and then worked for Goldman Sachs and Williams & Connolly before returning to Louisiana as a law clerk for Stanwood R. Duval Jr., a judge for the Federal Eastern District of Louisiana. She has served on the law faculty of Loyola University New Orleans and as of 2010 is in private practice. She has been actively involved in Louisiana Appleseed, Federal Bar Association, Junior League of New Orleans, and Delta Delta Delta.

Her father is Calvin Cifford Fayard, Jr. Fayard's mother is the former Cynthia Felder. The family is eponymous of Fayard Hall on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. On November 2, 2010,

In a September 2010 interview with Action News 17's Ken Benitez, Fayard claimed to have begun in politics with the elements of the Democratic Party associated with Senators J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., and John Breaux and United States Representative Billy Tauzin, a Democrat-turned-Republican.

Despite being outspent by the Louisiana Democratic Party while the Republican Party remained financially uncommitted, Dardenne won the 2010 November 2 election and was sworn into office on November 22.

On 2010 October 22, Fayard's name surfaced on talk-radio program Think Tank with Garland Robinette, as a potential competitor for then Governor Bobby Jindal in his presumed 2011 reelection campaign. The discussants cited Jindal's high approval ratings and already in-the-bank $7 million campaign fund as unapproachable assets for Democrats other than Fayard. The speculation continued after the election, with Fayard remaining uncommitted. Despite some initial suggestions that she might run for Louisiana Secretary of State in 2011, she ultimately declined to run.

As evidence for her effectiveness as a legislator should she be elected, Fayard touted her role in the settlement negotiations following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Fayard has compared the process of negotiating settlements in plaintiff's cases to policymaking in the U.S. Government, saying that "In reaching the settlement, you never get 100 percent of everything that what you want, but often a good compromise is almost always better than a bad win." She has also made the case that her experience in the private sector, including her role in GLO Airlines, has given her an appreciation for the need to find common ground and cut deals with people with whom she disagrees.

In 2015, Fayard worked alongside her brother Trey Fayard to launch Glo Airlines, a regional airline based at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans (MSY) with daily flights to Shreveport, Little Rock, Memphis and Destin, FL. Fayard currently serves as legal counsel for the airline. Glo Airlines has created 40 new jobs.

Fayard ran for lieutenant governor in the 2010 election, losing to Jay Dardenne in the runoff. She was a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in the November 8, 2016 primary election for the seat being vacated by two-term Republican Senator David Vitter.

Fayard first announced her candidacy in early February 2016, becoming the first Democrat to enter the race. Fayard faced a handful of Republican candidates, including State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, and U.S. Representative Charles Boustany of Lafayette. U.S. Representative John C. Fleming of Minden, former KKK leader and State Representative David Duke, and retired Air Force Colonel Rob Maness also competed. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, a Democrat and former State Senator, ran as well. Due to Louisiana's unusual Nonpartisan blanket primary, Fayard ran on the same ballot with the other 23 candidates on November 8.

Fayard built her campaign on her outsider status in Louisiana politics, her personal accomplishments in the legal and business world, and her advocacy for pay equity for women, Paid family leave, and expansion of charter schools. According to Fayard, voters are looking past party identification in 2016 and are seeking new leadership, arguing that "people don't believe that government, regardless of who's in charge, is adequately serving their needs". Her main criticism of her opponents, aside from fundamental policy concerns, was based on their status as career politicians. On the campaign trail Fayard noted the amount of time they have held public office, a political liability in a "change" election.

Independent polling from the race, conducted by Anzalone Liszt Grove, indicated that Fayard was tied for 2nd place among all voters. The poll, conducted between August 29 and September 1, found Fayard at 13%, tied with U.S. Representative Charles Boustany. Leading the pack was Louisiana State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy at 18%. Fayard significantly outpaced her Democratic opponent, Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, who was at 7%. All other candidates received below 7%. As of September 25, FiveThirtyEight's polling aggregator for the election has Fayard tied with Foster Campbell for 2nd place at roughly 17% of the vote each; both are 11 points behind State Treasurer John Kennedy, who is at 28%. Fayard's position in the race increased greatly since the spring of 2016, when she began the race in 6th place.

Fayard is strongly in favor of legislation that seeks to end the Gender pay gap in the United States, and has made pay equity for women workers a centerpiece for her 2016 campaign for the United States Senate. Due to the fact that Louisiana women on average earn 65 cents on the dollar compared to men, Fayard has pledged to take only 65% of her salary if elected to the Senate as a show of solidarity with women in Louisiana. Fayard pledges to do this until the Paycheck Fairness Act is passed. Further, due to the rising costs of child care, Fayard also supports increased government subsidization of low-cost childcare for working mothers."In Louisiana, our female workforce is the worst paid in the nation, earning 65 cents for every dollar a man makes. Consequently, Louisiana families are losing nearly $11 billion a year in what they would otherwise be earning. This isn't about ego, it's about eating," Fayard says on the issue. Further, Fayard supports the passage of legislation that provides paid family leave on the federal level. Fayard believes employer-provided paid leave will ease the burden on working families, especially concerning the high cost of childcare.

Fayard opposes the practice of solitary confinement for juvenile offenders, which remains legal in 10 states, including Louisiana. This puts Fayard in line with President Barack Obama, who banned the practice in federal prisons in January 2016. Moreover, Fayard believes that private prisons are detrimental to society and produce inhumane conditions for prisoners while not substantially reducing costs. As a result, she believes that private corporations should not be able to profit off of the incarceration of American citizens.

Despite being in favor of overhauling the criminal justice system, Fayard has billed herself as a partner with the Law Enforcement community. Fayard supports additional funding for community policing and using federal dollars to implement programs to better train officers on effective engagement in the community to stem the tide of tensions between police and the communities they serve and restore a sense of trust and cooperation. In the aftermath of the July 17th shooting of five police officers in Baton Rouge, Fayard wrote on Facebook "This vile, unimaginable violence must stop. Attacks on any of us are attacks on all of us, including the memories of those we've lost, and this simply cannot stand. My family and I stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, the people of Baton Rouge, and the entire state of Louisiana."