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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A day after announcing he'd step down as Louisiana's longest-serving congressman, Rodney Alexander was named to lead that state's Department of Veterans Affairs.
Gov. Bobby Jindal named him the new veterans affairs secretary on Wednesday.
Alexander will resign from Congress on Sept. 26 and start his new job as secretary on Sept. 30. A special election will be held on Oct. 19 to fill Alexander's congressional seat.
A Republican from Quitman, Alexander first won the 5th District seat in 2002.He blamed partisan gridlock Tuesday for his decision to leave Congress, rather than running for re-election in 2014.
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