Louisiana lawmakers send Landry map giving GOP one more likely US House seat
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, will now decide the fate of Louisiana’s congressional maps after the Senate passed a version that eliminated a Democratic district that stretched across the state. His signature will likely give Republicans an extra U.S. House seat after the December general election.
Louisiana’s state Senate passed a bill Friday, 28-10, that State Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, introduced before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Callais v. Louisiana case, nullifying the state’s second Black-majority district. The new map — SB 121 — divided up the Sixth District, which U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, represents. It retained the Black-majority district that covers much of New Orleans, represented by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat.
“It simply reconfigures it to look more like the 2022 map that makes it more compact and not racially gerrymandered, unlike the 2024 map, which was racially gerrymandered and so held,” Morris said during a floor debate.
The state House approved the legislation on Thursday, slightly amending which districts certain parishes are in. The Senate cleared a major legislative hurdle in accepting the House’s changes along party lines.
All Democrats in the state Senate voted against the map, except for Sen. Larry Selders, who was not present.
Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, read a filing from Phillip “Bert” Callais, who challenged Louisiana’s 2024 map, in which Callais threatened legal action if the legislature passes SB 121.
State Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, said during a brief debate over the bill that Morris cracked and packed districts for Baton Rouge.
Cracking is a method of gerrymandering that splits groups into other districts, diluting their voting power as they’re too small to effectuate a swing, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Packing, the center said, is the opposite of cracking, where a map concentrates members of a disfavored group into as few districts as possible but weakens voting strength in other districts.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, called Morris’ map Thursday on X the “worst” he’s seen and was opposed to it.
“This Frankenstein looking thing was NO DOUBT drawn up by a very small handful of guys in a secret room,” Higgins wrote. “NOBODY should support this insanely bad map.”
State primary rescheduled to November
According to Secretary of State Nancy Landry’s Office, the state will hold a primary for the U.S. House on Nov. 3 and a General Election on Dec. 12. The primary will be open, allowing for any registered voter in the state.
Her notice came after the governor suspended primaries on April 30, adding that the U.S. Supreme Court decision made it illegal for Louisiana to carry out an election on the older map.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
