GOP Congressman Joseph Cao was one of only two incumbent Republicans defeated on election night. In an interview with FrumForum, Cao who represents Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers much of New Orleans, discussed the difficulties he faced running against a candidate personally endorsed by Obama, the damage done by the Family Research Council attack ad released in the last days of his campaign and his future political plans.

The soft-spoken Cao, who is the first Vietnamese-American ever elected to Congress, says that the reason he lost on November 2nd was that, despite his personal friendship with Barack Obama, the President had done everything he could to win the seat back for the Democrats. “I was running against the President of the United States, and not against Cedric Richmond. This was a seat that the President wanted back, and he did everything he could to get it back,” said Cao.

“Cao’s district is about 61% African American and he’s got a November challenger in state Rep. Cedric Richmond (D), an African American. Democrats think Cao is vulnerable against a black challenger and pretty much assume that racial identification plus Cao’s [R]epublican affiliation spells defeat in November.

However, Cao currently sports a quite healthy poll lead over the less well known Richmond by a 51%-26% margin, according to a survey conducted May 27-June 2 by LA pollster Verne Kennedy. Cao leads Richmond by a 67%-13% margin among white voters, and by a narrower 39%-36% margin among African American voters.”

He’s a fresh face to politics and the first Vietnamese-American ever elected to Congress. The future is a little uncertain because he will be in a tough fight for re-election in 2010 in a district that is more than 2-to-1 Democrat to Republican.