Louisiana legislature passes map erasing Black-majority district
Louisiana's Republican legislature gave final approval to a new congressional map that eliminates one of the state's two Black-majority districts and would likely lead to a one-seat GOP pickup in the November election if upheld in court.
The modified map the state House passed 66-36 Thursday, and the Senate cleared 28-10 Friday dismantles Louisiana's 6th District, which winds 250 miles from Shreveport to Baton Rouge and elected Black Democrat Cleo Fields in the 2024 election. The U.S. Supreme Court last month invalidated the district as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in a major ruling that significantly limited the use of race as a factor in creating voting districts.
The changes convert the 6th District into a White-majority Republican stronghold. The proposal also preserved four safe Republican districts held by Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Rep. Clay Higgins, and Rep. Julia Letlow, who's leaving open the northeastern 5th District to run for the Senate.
"The map complies with traditional redistricting principles and also maximizes partisan advantage," state Rep. Beau Beaullieu (R), the House and Governmental Affairs Committee chair who sponsored the map changes, said during House floor debate Thursday.
Democratic legislators pressed without success for two Democratic-leaning districts out of six total in a state that favored President Donald Trump by 60% to 38% in the 2024 election. They said the Republican map concentrated even more Democrats and Black voters in Rep. Troy Carter's 2nd District, a Black-majority area that, as modified, would run from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Louisiana is one-third Black.
Fields, who's from Baton Rouge, would be a clear underdog in the reconfigured 6th District and ruled out running against Carter in the 2nd District.
"We should be fixing District 6 and continue to keep our delegation whole and not be sucked into playing partisan party politics here that doesn't benefit our state," state Rep. Rodney Lyons (D) said during debate Thursday.
State Rep. Edmond Jordan (D), the chair of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, said that "if you vote for this bill, you are participating in a racist act."
Beaullieu said that mapmakers didn't take race into consideration. "The shapes that you see are based on partisan advantage, not based on race," he said.
Higgins' southwestern 3rd District wasn't substantially revised, though the congressman wrote on X Thursday that he was "100% opposed" to a map he blasted as a "Frankenstein looking thing" that is "insanely bad." Beaullieu said he never heard from Higgins.
GOP legislators ruled out trying for a maximal 6-0 Republican gerrymander. In a May 26 filing to a federal court panel, the plaintiffs whose lawsuit led to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month said only incremental changes to Carter's 2nd District may "not fully comply" with the high court's directive and suggested they'd contest a remedial map "without any substantial changes to the current structure."
Other lawsuits may follow after Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signs the map into law. "There's always litigation after a map is passed," state Sen. Jay Morris (R), a leading advocate of the remap, said during debate Friday.
Landry on May 14 signed a measure that voided the May 16 House primaries and scheduled a new, open primary on Nov. 3, the national Election Day. Runoffs, if needed, would follow on Dec. 12. The new law set a candidate qualifying period for Aug. 5-7.
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