The Louisiana Senate on Thursday approved a new voting map that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black, Democratic-leaning congressional districts with only a few minor changes to a version approved by a legislative committee the day before.
The Senate voted 27-10, along party lines, to approve the new map, which is broadly similar to one lawmakers passed in 2022.
Senate Bill 121, sponsored by Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, now heads to the House, which could further alter it.
The map approved by the full Senate removed Pointe Coupee Parish from District 5 and added it to District 6. It also split up St. Landry Parish between the 3rd, 5th and 6th Districts.
The amended map also changes Tangipahoa Parish: Instead of being split between three districts, the northern part of the parish would be in District 5 and the lower part would be in District 1.
District 2, the lone majority-Black district with a population center anchored in Orleans Parish, remains largely unchanged in the approved map. The seat is currently held by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, a New Orleans Democrat.
“I did draw it in a way that would help Representative Carter maintain his incumbency,” Morris said Thursday. “It would help Republicans, in a way, by concentrating more Democratic-leaning voters in that district.”
Morris has said that, after the Supreme Court last month decided that redistricting plans can’t be made based on race, Louisiana is required to draw a new map.
“We cannot redistrict based upon race. We need to disregard race,” he said.
But Morris said lawmakers are instead permitted to use politics.
“As far as federal law is concerned, a state Legislature can use partisan advantage as a factor in redistricting,” he said. “It is perfectly fine for us to redraw maps based upon politics.”
As lawmakers debate the new map, Republicans are working to avoid any mention of race whatsoever so as not to run afoul of the Supreme Court ruling, which outlawed the use of race to draw voting maps.
“The goal is to stop being sued over redistricting,” said Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie. “Whatever version of a map that can get us there, that’s the one we want to use. And this version, we believe, gives us the greatest opportunity.”
Even the bill containing the proposed map doesn’t list any racial demographic data for voting districts, as is typical with redistricting bills.
Nonetheless, Democrats have continued to protest the elimination of majority-Black districts, arguing the Legislature is disenfranchising voters in a state that is roughly a third African-American.
“You can’t bring a map like this, that’s gonna reduce representation and think we’re just supposed to take it,” said Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans. “You think I’m supposed to be cool about it? You think I’m supposed to be calm about it? I don’t think so.”
Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, said, “For generations, many citizens of this state were excluded. They were systematically deprived of their right to vote.”
Minority voting power has been “constantly diluted,” she added.
Pressure is now on the House to approve the map before the legislative session ends on June 1.
Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, said he expects the House to pass a map that looks similar to the version approved by the Senate, but he said some members of the chamber don’t want parishes in their districts split up.
“I’m just hopeful that we can have good decorum throughout the debate and the process,” DeVillier said.
State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia, who chairs the House committee that handles redistricting legislation, said he supports the general concept of the map approved in the Senate committee, though he noted he has yet to look at “the minutiae of what each district looks like.”
Beaullieu said he expects to hear SB121 sometime next week, though a date hasn’t been set. He said there will be ample time for public testimony.
Fast-moving political maneuvering
Under the proposal, Louisiana would essentially return to the 2022 version of its congressional map, which had five safe Republican seats and one New Orleans-anchored Democratic seat.
Carter won the majority-Black, New Orleans-based seat that year, and he did so again in 2024 under a different map configuration.
The Legislature approved Wednesday and Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday signed House Bill 842, rescheduling the U.S. House primary elections for Nov. 3, with a Dec. 12 runoff. Qualifying would take place from Aug. 5 to 7.
The elections will be held under Louisiana’s open “jungle” primary format, where voters can cast a ballot for candidates of any party.
Many voters have been outraged by Republican efforts to eliminate one of Louisiana’s Black-majority districts. They’ve packed town hall meetings in recent days held by Carter and U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and have turned out in large numbers during early voting ahead of Saturday’s primary elections.
They’ve also railed against the GOP redistricting plan during two marathon public hearings, each lasting more than eight hours, saying Republicans are undermining decades of civil rights progress by reducing Black representation in Congress.
Republican lawmakers in Louisiana are responding to pressure from President Donald Trump to deliver at least one more Republican seat to buttress the GOP’s razor-thin majority in the U.S. House after midterm elections this fall.
