Louisiana state senators on Thursday approved a new plan for U.S. House district boundaries as the state responds to a Supreme Court decision that invalidated its prior map. The vote came about two weeks after the court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map over how state lines used race, a ruling that has triggered a round of new redistricting efforts across Southern states.
Under the new Louisiana plan, lawmakers would scrap the existing district that stretches about 200 miles (321 kilometers) northwest from Baton Rouge to Shreveport to form a majority-Black voting bloc, Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields currently represents. In its place, the new districts would cluster voting areas around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and in southern Louisiana, while maintaining a New Orleans-based majority-Black district represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter and adding a portion of Baton Rouge to that district.
The debate over the map’s boundaries played out as Louisiana lawmakers faced accusations that Republicans were reshaping districts in a way that would disadvantage Black voters and Democrats. Republican Sen. Jay Morris said the new map packs Democrats into Carter’s 2nd District so that Republicans can prevail elsewhere, adding, “These maps are drawn to maximize Republican advantage for the incumbent Republicans that we have in Congress.” Democratic Sen. Sam Jenkins suggested Republicans were “using partisanship as cover for discriminatory practices against a group of people, particularly Black voters and Democrats,” and warned, “If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.” Morris replied, “It’s not quacking,” and Jenkins answered, “It’s quacking pretty loud, it’s quacking all over the state.”
Republican senators also said they did not pursue an alternative that would have made six Republican-leaning districts, with Louisiana Senate President Cameron Henry saying such a map was not feasible. Henry and others pointed to the legal pressure facing Louisiana after court rulings that have narrowed the circumstances under which states can draw majority-Black districts. A federal judge struck down Louisiana’s 2022 map for violating the Voting Rights Act, and after an Alabama ruling in 2023, Louisiana revised its districts to create a second majority-Black district for the 2024 elections. That later map was challenged as well, and on April 29 the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s districts relied too heavily on race.
The new Louisiana map approval also affected the election calendar. After the Supreme Court ruling, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry postponed Louisiana’s U.S. House primaries that were scheduled for Saturday. A bill the Legislature gave final approval on Wednesday would shift the U.S. House primary to an open primary on Nov. 3, putting all U.S. House candidates on the ballot in their districts regardless of party, and would send the top two vote-getters to a runoff on Dec. 12 if no candidate wins a majority.
Republican sponsor Rep. Beau Beaullieu said that with congressional redistricting, there would not be enough time to hold Louisiana’s closed primaries and a primary runoff before the Nov. 3 general election. The bill would also set a new qualifying period for U.S. House candidates from Aug. 5-7. Under state rules that had been in place for recent elections, Louisiana’s closed party primaries began this year after the Legislature ended the state’s unique jungle primary system in 2024, and the secretary of state reported more than 250,000 votes had already been cast before the House primary schedule was changed.
While Louisiana reshapes its congressional districts, South Carolina’s lawmakers were also moving to adjust ahead of the midterms. South Carolina’s regular legislative session ended Thursday, but Republican Gov. Henry McMaster called lawmakers back to continue work on redistricting starting Friday. Republican House Majority Leader Davey Hiott said it could be next week before the House finishes a redistricting bill, which would also move congressional primaries to August. He said primaries were currently scheduled for June 9, early voting begins May 26, and that date is likely the deadline to finish redistricting work.
Hiott described the effort as expected to take time and provoke conflict, telling reporters, “The redistricting work ‘will be long. It will be boring. It will be confrontational.’” The bill would then face an even more skeptical Senate, where Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Luke Rankin has said he will “demand the process,” though he did not elaborate.
Democrats and Republicans both see the redistricting push as part of a broader fight over control of the closely divided U.S. House in the November midterm elections. The plan in Louisiana arrives as Republicans seek additional seat opportunities after the Supreme Court weakened the federal Voting Rights Act, while Democrats argue the reshaping could shift districts in ways that favor Republicans beyond what voters would choose. Republicans have said they could win as many as 15 additional House seats across seven states using newly adopted districts, while Democrats say they could gain up to six seats in two other states; but the article noted litigation continues in some places and voters would ultimately decide who wins.