Cleo Fields

Republicans who control the Louisiana Legislature are moving forward with erasing one of the state’s two Black-majority congressional districts, after a Senate committee approved a plan to do so early Wednesday morning after an all-night hearing.

The bill would essentially return Louisiana to the congressional map it had in 2022 that produced five safe Republican seats and one New Orleans-anchored Democrat seat, won that year by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

The Senate voted 27-10 on partisan lines Wednesday afternoon, with Democrats opposed, to suspend its rules to be able to take up the measure, Senate Bill 121, on Thursday.

After battling throughout the night, Democrats plan to continue raising objections to SB121, with Sen. Sam Jenkins of Shreveport saying, “it is ripe for legal challenges.”

Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, promised a lawsuit calling for the creation of two winnable seats for Democrats.

In the meantime, Jenkins conceded, “The (Republican) majority is full speed ahead with this map. I doubt that any attempt to amend it will succeed. We may be stuck with what we have.”

With that expectation, the new map is scrambling plans for who might run in the newly designed districts.

The effort to eliminate a Black-majority district is also stirring up Black voters, who have packed town hall meetings in recent days held by Carter and U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, who is slated to lose his district in the new map.

Black voters turned out in large numbers proportionally during the seven-day early voting period in advance of Saturday’s primary elections.

“People are angry,” Carter said in an interview. “People are deeply concerned about their democracy.”

Fast political maneuvering

Republican lawmakers in Louisiana are responding to pressure from President Donald Trump to deliver at least one more Republican seat to buttress the GOP campaign in the upcoming midterm elections to retain their majority. This move comes in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Louisiana’s current congressional map that has four Republicans and two Democrats, Carter and Fields.

Immediately after the Supreme Court ruling, Gov. Jeff Landry canceled the House elections for this Saturday’s primary elections.

The Legislature on Thursday approved House Bill 842 to reschedule the U.S. House primary elections for Nov. 3, with a December runoff. Qualifying would take place from Aug. 5-7.

Meanwhile, Republican state legislators are advancing plans to draw new maps for those elections.

Passing SB121 Wednesday morning overcame several hurdles, although the outcome never seemed in doubt. The Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee took hours of often-emotional testimony from dozens of people on Friday who objected to the Republican plans, as hundreds of other critics congregated in the hallway and nearby committee rooms.

The committee reconvened Tuesday at 7 p.m. and didn’t pass the new congressional map until 4:25 a.m. on Wednesday.

More people testified against the Republican effort, and the debate got heated at one point between Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, and Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, the sponsor of SB121.

Republicans rejected Senate Bill 407 by Sen. Ed Price, D-Gonzales, that would create two winnable districts for Democrats without either having a majority of Black voters.

In the end, four Republicans on the committee – Sens. Greg Miller of Norco, Mike Fesi of Houma and Blake Miguez of New Iberia – consistently outvoted the three Democrats: Sens. Regina Barrow of Baton Rouge, Duplessis and Jenkins.

“It’s a tough vote for everybody,” Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen and the committee chair, said in an interview Wednesday. “We all have relationships in this building. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, White, Democrat, Republican.”

Legislators expect the Senate on Thursday to pass the committee-adopted bill virtually intact. Morris on Wednesday said colleagues are bombarding him with requested tweaks.

“A map never makes everybody happy,” he said in an interview.

After the Senate passes SB121, the bill would be heard by the House and Governmental Affairs Committee. Its chair, Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, said Wednesday that he doesn’t know yet when it will hear the bill.

In this fall’s elections, the new map would eliminate Fields’ district, which runs from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, picking up Black-majority precincts along the way. The Legislature and Landry created that district in 2024 when they approved the current map.

Under the new map, each district would have slightly more than 776,000 residents.

Nearly half of the voters in Carter’s district would live in New Orleans and a third would be in Jefferson Parish, mostly on the west bank. The district would stretch up the Mississippi River into East Baton Rouge and Iberville parishes.

The new map would move East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes out of the 5th Congressional District – which is currently held by U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow – and orient the district more toward Monroe.

Who might run?

Misti Cordell, a Republican in Monroe appointed by Landry to chair the state Board of Regents, was already running for the 5th District seat under the map that the Supreme Court nullified. She said on Wednesday that the map approved earlier that morning is even better for her.

State Rep. Michael Echols, R-Monroe, also said he likes the new district.

Sen. Stewart Cathey, R-Monroe, said he would run for that same seat.

Fields’ 6th Congressional District would now have a White-majority and be centered in Baton Rouge.

State Sen. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, said he plans to run for that seat.

State Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, who has expressed a desire to run for the House, said he didn’t like the new district because it puts him in Carter’s district.

“I like to live in the district where I run,” McMakin said.

McMakin said he would try to amend his home into the district when SB121 goes before the House and Governmental Affairs Committee.

McMakin said that Garret Graves, who lost his White-majority seat in the 2024 redistricting that created Fields’ district, would be the instant front-runner for the new 6th District, if he chooses to run.