By Daily Mail Reporter and Associated Press Reporter PUBLISHED: 13:33 EST, 17 November 2013 | UPDATED: 15:24 EST, 17 November 2013 A political novice who enjoyed the public backing of Phil Robertson from the popular TV show Duck Dynasty was elected to Louisiana's state congress on Saturday night. Vance McAllister, who largely self-funded his campaign, beat establishment candidate Neil Riser, a state senator and Tea Party favorite, in the runoff election for the vacant 5th District seat. Both men are Republicans, but while Riser stuck rigidly to anti-Obama rhetoric, McAllister ran as a more measured pragmatist, who criticized Washington gridlock and hyper-partisanship, particularly over the President’s health care law.
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Vance McAllister won 60percent of the vote on Saturday night for the vacant 5th District seat
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He beat fellow Republican Senator Neil Riser who was favored by the local Tea Party
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McAllister is a friend of Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson who publicly supported him
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He was critical of the atmosphere in Washington, he doesn't blame it exclusively on Obama and also pointed the finger at House Republicans
Conservative activists said it's McAllister, who's never held public office and noted during the campaign that he'd never even visited @placeholder, that they worry would be the go-along-to-get-along congressman who isn't conservative enough.