Louisiana passes – Louisiana’s legislature approved a new congressional map aimed at helping Republicans pick up a seat, while eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black U.S. House districts. The decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s current
BATON ROUGE, La. — For Louisiana Democrats, the fight over congressional lines is no longer academic. It’s happening in a room where votes are counted and districts get redrawn, right after the U.S. Supreme Court just said the state’s prior map was built on illegal racial gerrymandering.
On Friday, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new congressional map in a 28-10 state Senate vote. The map is designed to help Republicans win a seat while eliminating one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black House districts, both currently represented by Democrats.
The timing lands hard. Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s current map as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. The ruling intensified a redistricting battle spreading across the South as President Donald Trump presses for steps he argues are necessary to protect the Republicans’ slim House majority in the midterm elections.
Louisiana Republicans say the new approach is safer politically. The party had considered a map that would give it a shot at winning all six of the state’s U.S. House seats. but lawmakers backed away from that plan because it would have required adding more Black voters into Republican-held districts—an effort they feared could backfire by producing GOP losses. Republicans currently hold four of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.
The new map reflects Republican arguments that a 5-1 split is better for their odds and that it helps protect U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson from facing a difficult reelection.
In the Senate debate, Democrats argued the opposite: that the proposal squeezes Black voters into fewer places. A half-hour floor fight turned on whether the map is designed by race while being sold as something else. Democrats contended the map is racially gerrymandered to squeeze more Black voters. who tend to be registered Democrats. into a single district.
Bill sponsor Republican state Sen. Jay Morris pushed back repeatedly, insisting party affiliation—not race—drove the boundaries. “I purposely put more Democrats into District 2 to make the remaining districts better performing for Republicans,” Morris said.
Morris also said he directed map demographers to avoid including race data, or including those statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.
Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins disagreed. “I think it’s a racially gerrymandered district that’s going to get us into a lot of trouble here,” Jenkins told Morris.
Morris answered Jenkins with a sharp dismissal: “Agree to disagree.”
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign the new map into law.
Louisiana is currently using a court-ordered map drawn in 2024 meant to comply with the Voting Rights Act by including a second district with a majority-Black population. That map was challenged in court, and on April 30 the Supreme Court struck it down as an illegal racial gerrymander.
Landry then altered the state’s election schedule. He postponed the state’s closed U.S. House primary slated for May 16. He later signed a law making the U.S. primary open and shifted the date to Nov. 3 so there would be time for Republican lawmakers to draw and pass a new map. Under that change, all candidates—regardless of party affiliation—will be on the ballot in their district.
The new proposal redraws Democratic U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields’ district, clustering it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a heavily Democratic. majority-Black district based in New Orleans currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.
More lawsuits are expected. Democrats say the proposed map could draw another case over racial gerrymandering. They also pointed to the Supreme Court’s criticism earlier this week of the Legislature’s map process, including that the decision left a majority-Black district in place.
During floor debate, Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis captured the mood with a warning that sounded less like debate and more like alarm. “From the beginning of the process. I said we’re building a house on a broken foundation — now it feels more like quicksand. ” Duplessis said. “I’m really. really troubled by the fact that we’re going to continue to lead the charge in this race to the bottom.”.
Louisiana is not alone. In the weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision, several other Republican-controlled Southern states seized on a weakened federal Voting Rights Act to try redrawing their congressional districts.
So far. Republicans are winning the redistricting contest—but Democrats argue winning the map battle doesn’t guarantee winning a narrowly divided U.S. House in November. Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from redistricting efforts so far. while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.
Other states have moved quickly. Florida’s Legislature passed new congressional districts just hours after the ruling. completing a redrawing that was in the works in anticipation of the decision; it could yield Republicans as many as four additional seats in the midterm elections. Tennessee adopted new U.S. House districts a week after the ruling. carving up a majority-Black district based in Memphis in an effort to win an additional seat. In Alabama. Republicans are attempting to pick up another seat by redrawing two districts where Black residents compose a majority or close to it. with Democrats holding both seats and the proposal mired in a court battle. South Carolina’s Senate, meanwhile, decided against redistricting despite pressure from Trump.
In Louisiana, the immediate question now is straightforward and brutal: what happens next when the courts weigh in again—after lawmakers already cast their votes, and after the Supreme Court has already said the last version was unlawful.
Louisiana congressional map redistricting U.S. Supreme Court Voting Rights Act racial gerrymandering Jay Morris Sam Jenkins Jeff Landry Mike Johnson Cleo Fields Troy Carter Royce Duplessis midterm elections