Louisiana Passes New Congressional Map Favoring Republicans
Al Jazeera English
Louisiana lawmakers have approved a new congressional map designed to help Republicans gain an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives while eliminating one of the state's two majority-Black districts. The approval came after a Supreme Court ruling struck down the previous map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Republican Governor Jeff Landry is expected to sign the map into law, despite threats of new litigation.
Louisiana lawmakers have approved a new congressional map designed to help Republicans gain an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. However, to achieve this, the map eliminated one of the state's two majority-Black districts, both currently represented by Democrats.
The approval came in the Louisiana legislature on Friday, following an April Supreme Court ruling that rejected the state's existing map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, because it had been drawn to include two majority-Black districts.
The ruling in the case Louisiana v. Callais weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was designed to prevent discrimination against minority groups at polling places. The decision also fueled a nationwide redistricting battle, driven by President Donald Trump's effort to protect the Republicans' slim House majority in the midterm elections. Louisiana is one of several Southern states redrawing maps to benefit Republicans.
Earlier, Republican lawmakers in Louisiana had considered drawing a map that would give the party a chance to win all six of the state's House seats. But that would have required adding more registered Democratic voters to Republican-held districts, potentially backfiring. Currently, Republicans hold four of Louisiana's six congressional seats, and under the new map, they are expected to gain a fifth.
The new map was passed by the state Senate 28-10. Republican Governor Jeff Landry is expected to sign it into law, despite threats of new litigation.
During a half-hour Senate debate, Democrats argued the proposed map is racially gerrymandered, packing Black voters—who tend to register as Democrats—into a single district. Democratic state Senator Royce Duplessis warned Louisiana was engaging in a "race to the bottom" by joining the redistricting push.
Republican Senator Jay Morris, the bill's sponsor, repeatedly insisted that political party, not race, drove the boundary drawing. "I deliberately added more Democrats to District 2 to make the other districts perform better for Republicans," Morris said. He said he instructed mapmakers to avoid using racial data or including such statistics in information shared with lawmakers before the vote.
Louisiana had been operating under a lower-court-ordered map from 2024 meant to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which included a second majority-Black district. That map was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court struck it down on April 30 as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Governor Landry postponed the state's closed primary, originally scheduled for May 16, to allow for the new map. He then signed into law an open primary and moved the election to November 3, giving Republican lawmakers time to draw and pass a new map. All candidates, regardless of party, will appear on the ballot for voters in their district.
The proposed map redraws a district currently represented by Democratic Representative Cleo Fields, concentrating it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana. It also adds part of Baton Rouge to a majority-Black Democratic district in New Orleans, represented by Democratic Representative Troy Carter.
New lawsuits over the map are expected. Democrats argue it may face legal challenges over racial gerrymandering. The ACLU of Louisiana said it might sue, calling the map "racial gerrymandering thinly veiled as partisanship." "This fight is just beginning," the ACLU chapter added.
In the weeks following the Supreme Court ruling, other Republican-controlled Southern states have exploited the weakened Voting Rights Act to redraw their districts. So far, Republicans are winning the national redistricting battle, passing more partisan maps to gain House seats than Democrats.
In a related development, the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal of a lawsuit filed by a bipartisan coalition of business executives seeking to redraw the state's Republican-friendly congressional districts. Republicans currently hold six of Wisconsin's eight House seats, but only two are considered competitive. A three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit in April. The plaintiffs do not seek a ruling in time for the 2026 election, but instead ask the state Supreme Court to remand the case to a lower court for trial, which may not occur until 2027.
